• ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 day ago

    Suicides in women in the 1950s and 1960s were actually lower than what they were in the 1980’s, so this is a bullshit comparison tweet, where the 1970s happened to have the highest rate and the tweeter is putting a causation to the numbers that may not even have direct causation. I could just as easily claim that vehicle fuel economy improving during the 70’s caused a decrease in female suicides.

    Female suicides hit its lowest at around 2000 before trending upwards again.

    • kindernacht@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      While I can’t necessarily disagree with your correlation≠causation argument…

      I could just as easily claim that vehicle fuel economy improving during the 70’s caused a decrease in female suicides.

      Better gas mileage probably contributed a more than zero amount to that decrease.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 day ago

        You could very well be right, but it’s just impossible to control for such variables, so we can’t say one way or the other with a degree of certainty. Especially considering that a 20% swing in numbers consists of a mere 1 or 2 people per 100,000 difference.