Does it ever seem like very intelligent people have lost all grasp of everyday life? Maybe they never had one to identify with. Whatever the case, this week's out-of-touch award goes to yet another movies-cause-smoking study.
Browsing the IMDb for like the 9th time in the last two hours (I really don't want to be at work today) I came across this story: imdb.com/news/sb/2007-03-06/#film3. It seems another group of bespectacled grad students have determined that R-rated movies make kids smoke. Apparently, once again, movies are the cause of everything dangerous. I know I'm hyperbolizing, but it kills me that they never make the obvious connection: that the kinds of movies people watch tend to tell you more about the kind of person they are, then influence the way they behave.
Of course, I'm fully aware that exposure to R-rated movies can spur on rebelliousness, but the soil's gotta be there before the seed can grow. It's just funny to me that people who are so careful about using words like "theory" and "projection" haven't managed to determine that "young people who are likely to watch R-rated movies are more likely to smoke" is a more accurate statement. Smoking is a symptom (or trait) of rebelliousness, not the cause.
Now, anybody got a light?
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