If I read that correctly, the article says that there is a causational relationship. I don't believe that's what the study really found - the researchers found a correlation. In fact, one of the researchers is quoted as saying you must be cautious about attributing the cause of increased sexual activity to this.
The first thing that you learn in any social science class that deals with is that correlation does not equal causation.
I could do a study that concluded that people who are dead also stop producing urine (which, well, they do, right?). It would be incorrect to conclude that the cessation of urine production leads to death, wouldn't it?
You make that point in your blog entry, too Kissfan, but I just thought I'd add the distinction between causation and correlation.
That article is very poorly written, and its author seems to have neglected to think about the subject he or she was writing about. Notice the byline is "Associated Press" in that article. The absence of a name in the byline tends to be found in really really poorly written articles. I think we've found another one.
But the problem is that Brian Williams reports this on the NBC Nightly News and millions of people eat it up as gospel and think they can keep their kids from having sex by taking away their Black Eyed Peas records. It's a joke.
kissfan - I know you're busy for the next couple of days, but would you like to do a guest post for 'Operation Preaching To The Choir'?
Sure, Alicia. Let me know what, when, where, and how. I'm game!
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