02 April, 2008

Reason 3.45 Not to be Ashamed of Your Thesis

Uhrig, N., "Cinema Is Good For You":

Using data from wave 12 of the British Household Panel Study, I find that cinema attendance has strong positive effects on happiness and stable negative effects on self-reporting of anxiety or depression, even when controlling for various socio-demographic and economic factors.
Or, alternatively, happy people watch more movies. That actually sounds like an equally groundbreaking finding. Maybe I’ll write that paper.

Alternative title for this post: Reason 1,529 Not to Trust a Sociologist.

HT: Bryan Caplan

1 comment:

JD B said...

The WSJ reported today ("Down the Tube: the Sad Stats on Happiness, Money and TV" that TV viewing hours is positively correlated (and a contributing cause) of an unpleasant state.

The difference between Movies and TV viewing, I would guess, would be the social interactions and exercise that go along with heading out to the movies with a bunch of friends.

Maybe.