This one's not related to the environment, but I'm not going to apologize for it, dammit, because it's about my second favorite subject...confusing correlation and causation...oh, and drinking.
I heard about this study in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research* on the way in to the office today. I put the abstract below the jump, but here's the short version: Guys in frats drink a lot on Thursday nights and don't take classes on Friday mornings.
I don't question the results, but I do question the recommendations derived from the results.
The official abstract:
Excessive drinking on Thursday, relative to other weekdays, was found and was moderated by Friday class schedule: hierarchical linear models indicated that students with no Friday classes drank approximately twice as much on Thursdays as students with early Friday classes (i.e., mean drinks=1.24 for students with early Friday class vs 2.41 for students with no Friday class). Students who had classes beginning at 12 pm. or later consumed similar amounts as those with no Friday classes (M=2.52). The magnitude of the Friday class effect was comparatively larger among males and among those who were members of the Greek system or participated in Greek activities. Ancillary analyses based on the subset of students who showed within-subject variability in Friday classes across semesters (i.e., had both early and late or no Friday classes) produced findings similar to those based on the entire sample. Little evidence was found for compensatory drinking on Friday and Saturday among those with early Friday classes.
The radio show I was listening claimed that the authors recommend that more classes be scheduled early Friday morning to help prevent binge drinking by college students. I don't have access to the full article (our library makes us pay for new editions of journals on-line and I don't feel like walking to the library for the hardcopy) so I can't speak to what conclusions the authors draw other than what they include in the abstract:
Rates and amounts of alcohol consumption on Thursday are high, although they appear to be influenced by the presence and timing of Friday classes. Friday classes, especially those before 10 am, may reduce excessive drinking.
If the authors are recommending that more classes be scheduled Friday morning because there is correlation between students taking Friday morning classes and drinking less the night before, then they may have fallen prey to the classic confusion of correlation and causation.
It is possible that forcing students to take classes early Friday mornings might reduce drinking on Thursday nights, but it is equally likely that students who are currently enrolled in Friday morning classes are those who are less likely to drink on Thursday night anyway. In that case, forcing all students to take Friday morning classes won't be successful at reducing drinking and will lead to one of two outcomes: a) a lot of hungover students in class Friday morning, or b) a lot of hungover students skipping class Friday morning. In either case, the only thing reduced is the student's GPA.
*I think John and I should be made honorary editors of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research for our extended work in the field of experimental alcoholism.
