does ice cream cause murder?

[mickey]

Researchers found that, when ice cream sales go up, murder rates in cities go up, and when ice cream sales go down, murder rates in cities go down. But there's no connection between those two things. They might be indirectly connected because they both increase with outdoor temperature, so that more ice cream is sold and more murders occur on hot days than on cold ones.

That's just one of the weird correlations that statisticians come across, which are part of the old truism that "correlation does not mean causation." There's even a website listing some of them, with graphs: http://tylervigen.com/. My favorite is the one about consumption of mozzarella and issuance of doctorates in civil engineering.

 

[Tealeaf]

I don't know, I'd kill someone for another serving of pumpkin ice cream with marshmallows. Nice website, though. I'll be bookmarking this one, most definitely not to abuse it in the future.

My expert explanations:

Per capita consumption of cheese (US) + Number of people who died by becoming tangled in their bedsheets:
As cheese quality and availability has gone up, more people have become prone to eating cheese and crackers in bed and writhing in ecstasy over some good pepper jack or white cheddar.

Divorce rate in Maine + Per capita consumption of margarine (US):
Stop buying margarine and people will stop divorcing you.

Total revenue generated by arcades (US) + Computer science doctorates awarded (US):
Nerds gonna nerd.

 

[mickey]

What's your expert explanation for number of Political Action Committees and number of people who died by falling out of their wheelchairs?

 

[SophiaGrace]

I remember this icecream/summer example when I took a research methods course in college.

 

[Danielle]

I don't know, I'd kill someone for another serving of pumpkin ice cream with marshmallows. Nice website, though. I'll be bookmarking this one, most definitely not to abuse it in the future.

My expert explanations:

Per capita consumption of cheese (US) + Number of people who died by becoming tangled in their bedsheets:
As cheese quality and availability has gone up, more people have become prone to eating cheese and crackers in bed and writhing in ecstasy over some good pepper jack or white cheddar.

Divorce rate in Maine + Per capita consumption of margarine (US):
Stop buying margarine and people will stop divorcing you.

Total revenue generated by arcades (US) + Computer science doctorates awarded (US):
Nerds gonna nerd.

Love This!!! lol

 

[Sennar]

but are they paid doing these researches? LOOOL

ps: are you sure you could't murder for an ice-cream?ehehehhe