From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npoiv!npois!houxm!houxa!houxi!houxz!ihnp4!ixn5c!inuxc!pur-ee!CSvax:mab Newsgroups: net.misc Title: Re: cause and effect? Article-I.D.: purdue.494 Posted: Wed Jan 26 11:23:06 1983 Received: Sat Jan 29 09:19:39 1983 References: seismo.215 Daryl Huff (I'm not too sure about the first name, but the last one's right), in his book How To Lie With Statistics, cites as an example of mistaking cause for effect a belief of one primitive tribe. Seems these people normally had a lot of lice. When they got ill, the lice went away. Their conclusion? Having lice is good for your health. (What actually happened was the increase in body heat made the lice too uncomfortable to stick around ...) Incidentally, I do recommend Huff's book; he has a very good chapter on relating a cause and an effect (whether or not there is some relation!) Matt Bishop mab@purdue, ...!decvax!pur-ee:csvax:mab