Young Men Who Smoke Have Lower IQs 561
Hugh Pickens writes "Science Daily reports on a study that has determined that young men who smoke are likely to have lower IQs than their non-smoking peers. In the study, conducted with 20,000 Israeli Army recruits and veterans, the average IQ for a non-smoker was about 101, while the smokers' average was more than seven IQ points lower at about 94, and the IQs of young men who smoked more than a pack a day were lower still, at about 90. (These IQs all fall within the normal range.) 'In the health profession, we've generally thought that smokers are most likely the kind of people to have grown up in difficult neighborhoods, or who've been given less education at good schools,' says Prof. Mark Weiser of Tel Aviv University's Department of Psychiatry, whose study was reported in a recent version of the journal Addiction. 'Because our study included subjects with diverse socio-economic backgrounds, we've been able to rule out socio-economics as a major factor. The government might want to rethink how it allocates its educational resources on smoking.' Prof. Weiser says that the study illuminates a general trend in epidemiological studies. 'People on the lower end of the average IQ tend to display poorer overall decision-making skills when it comes to their health,' says Weiser. 'Schoolchildren who have been found to have a lower IQ can be considered at risk to begin the habit, and can be targeted with special education and therapy to prevent them from starting or to break the habit after it sets in.'"
Duh (Score:5, Insightful)
Smarter people know its not a good idea to start smoking.
Re:Duh (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
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I'd almost be willing to bet that the smart people you know who smoke aren't young. Back in the day, 3/4 of adults smoked, as opposed to today, and the health risks weren't as clear to most back then. Hell, when I went to college you could smoke in class; most of my professors smoked, as well as most of the students. nowdays you can't even smoke in a bar.
Re:Duh (Score:4, Interesting)
I know tons of "smart" people who smoke. Most of them do it to cope with stress and anxiety.
Despite the fact that it kills you, it's apparently a surprisingly effective antidepressant with very few neurological side-effects. Don't forget the cultural aspect too -- everyone smokes down South.
Look at the map. (Score:3, Interesting)
As a southerner, I'd like to point out 1) of course we don't all smoke, and 2) while yes, smoking is more widespread in the south, Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nevada are all in the top 10. 11, 12 and 13 are Alaska, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it. :)
Check out this map and the table linked at the bottom: http://www.smokefree.gov/map.aspx [smokefree.gov]
Re:Duh (Score:5, Insightful)
One question that the article does not pose (and can't answer due to its nature) is which is cause and which is effect. Is the reason that smokers have a lower IQ that the people that start smoking have a lower IQ, or does smoking damage your ability to reason logically?
Actually it can answer it. The study looked at two groups: fresh recruits and vets. We can assume an age difference of at least a few years between them, and the recruits are likely to be young enough that they've only been smoking for a couple of years on average. Therefore if the smoking were causing damage, we'd expect the recruits to show a less pronounced effect than the vets. As the article mentions no difference between the two groups, we can assume no significant such difference exists, and therefore (at least) no evidence for the latter proposition, and potentially evidence against it.
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Still, I think the study is flawed. It is more likely that smokers answered enough questions to "pass", filled in the rest as quickly as possible and left to go have a cigarette. I remember taking the pre-enlistment test and the week of testing during boot camp. Both are a pain and are a test of patience as much as anything. The phrase 'hurry up and wait' comes to mind and the too close face of a drill sgt screaming at recruits to stay off his grass. Fun times.
Don't know what it says about my IQ, but
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Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
How it is that people fall for the sorts of lies he was telling me is beyond me, but you do have to account for the biased sampling selection otherwise you get skewed results. Also people who
Re:Duh (Score:5, Insightful)
In countries without such, that'd be a major confound(or, perhaps more likely, give you a fairly strongly bimodal distribution. A subset of the military is extremely bright, kid with the highest SAT scores in my class went to West Point, patriotism or family history of military activity can have a strong influence as well. On the other hand, it isn't exactly news that "volunteer" recruitment tends to be easier in poor economic times, and in small, somewhat depressed, towns where there is fuck-all in the way of alternatives.)
Re:Duh (Score:5, Insightful)
In Israel the army enlists you
Re:Duh (Score:4, Funny)
I had a naval recruiter after me for the longest time. It was pretty clear that he was angling for people that weren't particularly bright or of much value
At least you figured out why he was after you.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Smarter people have more options then dumb people after they leave high school.
The following are available with a high school deploma.
Low paying job where you will be struggling for the rest of your life.
Military where you probably still won't get paid well but at least you get room and board.
Religious vocation (But still for most major religions you still need to go threw serious schooling (equivalent to a 4 year degree))
Speciality training where you can get a decent job at a good rate but you are first to
Ciggarettes VS.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ciggarettes VS.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Most people I know who are military smoke because.... It's something to do. I had friends that started smoking in the military because it was the only way to make the daily hurry up and wait tolerable.
A couple swore they could sight in on a target faster because they smoked.
Smoking versus working (Score:5, Informative)
I guy I used to work for who smoked told me that he started smoking because it got him out of work.
He was working at a machine shop and found that if he took a break with the smokers, his foreman made him go back to to work while the smokers got to keep on smoking. Apparently not working but smoking was "doing something" and not working without smoking was "standing around." He basically started smoking to keep from working.
I'm guessing its like that in the military, too. A guy smoking is on a smoke break, a guy not smoking is just standing around.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Always carried a book in my pants' cargo pocket whenever hurry up and wait was on the horizon. Gosh. That was a long time ago!
Re:Ciggarettes VS.. (Score:4, Insightful)
I now have moved to pipe tobacco that is all natural with no chemicals
Yep, those chemicals will kill ya'. In other news, I've moved to all-natural plutonium to put in my morning drink.
Re:Duh (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, I've observed exactly the opposite. While I admit freely that the entirety of my social circle does not amount to a representative sample of the population, most of the nicotine addicts I know (myself included) got started smoking in similar ways.
For me, it started freshman year in college- attending parties and whatnot. I had a lot of friends and acquaintances who smoked, and would always offer me one, but for the longest time I turned down the offer. It was after coming out of a bad relationship, having far more to drink than was either healthy or reasonable, and then running into the other half of said bad relationship at the same party... Well, I'll spare the details, but it was rather upsetting. Anyways, me being upset and intoxicated (nice combination there!), I was offered a cigarette. This time, I took it- didn't really give a shit at the time. Found that I rather enjoyed the experience.
Roll the clock forward a year. I'm in the habit of having a smoke now and then when I'm drinking. My line of thinking was something to the effect of: "I know this is bad for me, but I'm doing it so infrequently that the cumulative damage should be minimal if even measurable. I won't get addicted, I have too much willpower for that. And damn it, it feels good!"
Roll the clock forward another year, and I'm a pack a day smoker. Somewhere over the summer between sophomore and junior year, My drinking and partying became frequent enough that I started getting cigarette cravings when sober. Those of you who have never been addicted to anything can understand addiction only in an objective, clinical way- the subjective experience of it, however, is something you need to experience to understand- though I highly recommend against it.
That's the falling that most of the smokers I know have had- overconfidence. You think that you're an intelligent person, mind over matter, and all that jazz, but the reality of it is far more difficult than you can comprehend, and you don't really understand it until you're hooked. It's a song and dance that I've seen and taken part in time and time again.
As an aside, I think that's the major failing with education regarding drugs, both legal and otherwise- I don't know of any way to explain addiction in terms that a kid can truly understand. You can preach about the negative effects all day long, but since when has the average high school/college aged kid been afraid to take a few risks? The legal repercussions? Please, like the average kid's that worried. I believe that the dangers and nature of addiction need to be stressed a LOT more, but as I said, I don't know of any way to explain it in terms that can be understood by someone who's never been addicted to anything.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I read an addict describing fighting an addiction craving as something akin to resisting diarhhea. That scares me.
Intelligence vs wisdom (Score:3, Interesting)
This is too simplistic. EVERYBODY knows that smoking is bad for you. Some just know in more detail.
My wife had an in medical school for her anatomy class. He showed the students how to dissect a cadaver, and showed them the horrible, shriveled, black lungs of a deceased smoker.
And then he went outside and took a smoke break.
My explanation? There's a HUGE difference between intelligence and wisdom. Intelligence is the ability to solve problems; it asks
Re:Duh (Score:5, Insightful)
You misread the parent post tho, which states that smarter people are less likely to start smoking... It's not addictive if you've never done it.
Re:Duh (Score:5, Interesting)
However, one of the abilities that generally falls into the basket of "intelligence" is the ability to do pattern recognition, recognize correlations, and use them to your advantage. There has been some research suggesting that one of the difficulties that people have in quitting any addictive substance is that, when not subject to craving at that particular moment, they consistently underestimate how tempted they will be in the future. It wouldn't totally shock me if smarter people are better at allowing their rational evaluation("No, whenever I 'have just one at the pub', I end up not stopping") to override the consistent emotional underestimate than less smart people are.
There are, I suppose, a variety of other potential confounding variables. For instance, you'd expect that brighter people, in general, should have a modestly better effort/reward ratio than less smart ones. This could easily result in an upbringing that encourages greater obedience to rules and instructions from others that seem to have a realistic basis.(If your parents tell you that you should be sure to work hard in school, and you do, and get good results, this is encouraging. You obey the instructions, and receive praise and recognition. If you obey the instructions; but aren't sharp enough to garner the richest rewards, you are likely to be less encouraged to do so in the future.) In most contemporary societies, there are a variety of risk/reward tradeoffs available. If you are smart enough(and aren't a member of some particularly despised underclass/race/whatever), you have likely had greatest access to the high end of the "low risk/low reward" strategy pool(and the high end of which is basically the "low risk/medium to good reward" pool, pretty attractive). If you are less smart, you are more likely to be stuck with the "low reward" side of the pool if you choose the "low risk" strategy pool. You might, therefore, be induced to (rationally) choose the "high risk" strategy pool.
More generally, the specific cigarettes case aside, I'd be interested to see some mixture of economic and sociological analysis looking at that question. Are people, in fact, substantially irrational, choosing(if one can be so optimistic as to assume that they do in fact choose), courses of action that are just plain stupid as the emtional and instinctive heuristics of a hunter-gatherer collide with modernity? Or are they actually acting rationally(if not always how we'd like them to), if you look at the rewards on average of various strategies, as compared to their other options?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
My brother, with a degree in Physics and Telecommunications engineering, smokes like a chimney, about a pack a day. Plus he wears patches and chew the nicotine gum. He is well aware of the damage that he is doing to himself. The problem is (I can't remember the slash
Re:Duh (Score:5, Interesting)
In college I used to smoke at bars and parties to meet girls, but I never got addicted curiously enough. Eventually I found out that the only girls I met were other smokers, whom I usually deemed less than desirable so basically I stopped smoking.
It was a good ice breaker tho.
Re:Duh (Score:5, Insightful)
When I was young, I always found girls that smoke to be more desirable, ie: if she smokes, she pokes. The friend that originally explained this to me (when I was 18) noticed that girls that smoked had lower self-esteem, and girls with lower self-esteem were more likely to "do things" to get your acceptance. This isn't to say that all girls that smoke will have sex with you, it just says the odds are better, and you spend less time looking and more time doing.
So, if you are looking for a WIFE, then avoid smokers, but if you are looking for a good time, then girls that smoke are a better bet.
Re:Duh (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Duh (Score:5, Funny)
Is that code for something?
I couldn't find any references to "licking the ashtray" at Urban Dictionary.
Re:Duh (Score:5, Funny)
My wife smoked and poked when she was younger. She's since given up both :(
[John]
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
He doesn't want a wife that is frigid, but one who can be satisfied by one man.
If you want to get laid, find a woman who wants it and doesn't care who.
If you want to get married, find a woman who only wants it from you.
Re:Hard to get addicted (Score:4, Insightful)
This goes against all claims that you become addicted very quickly.
Some studies have indicated the tendency to get addicted with nicotine is hereditary (ditto with heroin): some people (around 70% if memory serves) get addicted very easily, others rarely or not at all. Maybe you're one of the latter group.
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No, it's not the same thing. You posted a false deduction as fact without regard to veracity. I knew the *facts* before I posted, whether I gave a citation or not. What you thought to be an obvious fact (that the pancreas is not part of the respiratory system, therefore smoking cannot cause pancreatic cancer) is false, and you posted without bothering to check whether your deduction was, in fact, true. Not only is your deduction false, but it d
Re:Duh (Score:5, Funny)
You are forgetting that some of us smoke because ::gasp:: we enjoy it.
Yeah, but you can't even get to the end of a sentence without gasping. I think I'll stay away from smoking, thank you.
Re:Duh (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Carr [wikipedia.org]
The book has helped myself and several others in our Ph.D program quit smoking. I think you may find that you don't enjoy smoking, but rather you enjoy relieving the physical and psychological symptoms of Nicotine withdrawal. Each cigarette returns you to neutral, and after about an hour your Nicotine levels have dropped and your addicted body makes you uncomfortable so you enjoy having another cigarette and returning back to neutral. The truth is you like having an absence of withdrawal symptoms, ie, of being a nonsmoker.
Probably. So far everyone I know that has read the book has easily quit and has come to understand this perspective. We're not exactly a low IQ bunch. But I could be wrong of course. Couldn't hurt to find out though: at least you'd have a reason to ditch the stink and health problems...
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Again, I smoke at most half a pack a day, and it isn't uncommon for me to go for days without smoking at all (a good example being when we went to visit my fiancee's sister two weeks ago...didn't have a single cig for a week, nor did I ever feel the need for one)
Cigs are one of those things where if I have them, that's great...if I don't, I'm not going to go out of my way to get more.
Re:Duh (Score:5, Funny)
Not only is smoking enjoyable, but it's manly and patriotic.
If not for tobacco, it's quite possible that the USA would not exist today and we'd all still be speaking English.
Re:Duh (Score:4, Funny)
"England and America are two countries divided by a common language." - George Bernard Shaw.
Or, as we would say today:
WHOOSH.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Enjoyment and addiction have little to nothing to do with each other.
You can enjoy something and not be addicted; conversely you can be addicted to something and not enjoy it.
Actually, most of the enjoyment from smoking is gone by the time the addiction sets in. By that time you need a smoke just to feel normal.
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I do believe you're mistaken about this. People first start smoking for different reasons, but they continue smoking because they enjoy it. They become addicted because they enjoyed it and thus began smoking more regularly after their first few experiences with it.
I'm a former smoker and I can guarantee you that I wasn't addicted at my first puff, or even my first few packs. I found I enjoyed it though through more experiences and I began to increase the regularity with which I smoked, yet I still wasn't
Re:Duh (Score:4, Insightful)
So what you're saying is that it's impossible to enjoy something without being addicted to it? No wonder the rehab thing is so popular nowadays...people are addicted to everything!
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
That isn't true at all...how many people do you know who sit there saying they have to quit, it's disgusting, etc while they have a cig in their mouth? I have personally known a number of people like that (all of whom smoked more than a pack a day, btw)
I wouldn't take that too seriously. That's just the socially acceptable way of indulging in a vice. Call it a ritual self-punishment if you will as payment for continuing the vice.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
virtually all smokers have tried quitting and would like to quit.
A lot of smokers I know enjoy smoking - What they don't like is the fact that it's addictive. They'd like to be able to have a smoke after a good meal, or after sex, without suffering terribly on a 4 hour plane ride or having to go outside at work every 90 minutes...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Not all of use are proctologists you know.
But... (Score:2)
... is the same true for women?
Re:But... (Score:5, Funny)
what are these 'women' you are talking about?
Re:But... (Score:5, Funny)
I think he means the people whose name end in ".jpg".
Re:But... (Score:5, Funny)
I prefer the ones whose names end in ".avi" - they seem more... alive, somehow.
I smoke... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Ironically, the medication for said condition makes me want to smoke more frequently...
Also... (Score:2)
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And I find it easier to think abstractly when I do (I did quit for over a year). Smoking forces me to take a break from what I'm doing every once in a while, so I get to separate myself from it. Then I get 5 minutes or so of time to contemplate or for abstract thought. I do honestly find myself more productive when I do smoke. Now, I'm not trying to rationalize it (I hate the fact that I got started again)... Just an observation...
Yes, and in the morning, I don't wake up until I have had my cup of coffee. Funny how it wasn't so back when I didn't drink coffee...
Point: your smoking addiction lets you function normally when you smoke, but when you do not smoke, you will function worse. A non-smoker functions normally all the time.
Re:I smoke... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
When I quit for a little over a year (last year), I did find it easier to think in general (as you imply), but I did find it harder to concentrate on abstract ideas. I've always been one to think about and formulate my own theories on everything (from philosophy to physics to math, etc). Most of them
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Smoking forces me to take a break from what I'm doing every once in a while, so I get to separate myself from it. Then I get 5 minutes or so of time to contemplate or for abstract thought.
Why do you need to smoke when you take your 5 minutes of contemplation time? Why not just grab some fresh air, or at least wander away from your desk for a bit?
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Smoking break (Score:2)
When I worked where there were a number of smokers who took their regular smoking breaks, I took a break with them; except that I took a brisk 5-minute walk around a nearby park while they were busy poisoning themselves (and yes, nicotine is a very potent poison, makes a fine anti-tick dip for sheep). Did a great job of clearing my head and letting me get back into the groove for another couple of hours.
Re:I smoke... (Score:5, Interesting)
The break. That's what got my dad (Score:5, Interesting)
From what I hear, it is generally accepted that a 5-15 min break every workhour is healthy for you, as well as for your ability to stay focused. I find that if I'm working on a difficult problem, taking a walk while thinking on it is a good way to get ideas for breaking it. Most people just don't take those breaks for a number of reasons, such as forgetting to do it or fear that a boss may think that they are lazy. Smokers, however, have a regular craving, that reminds them to take a smoking break. And it is (still) more acceptable for a smoker to take a smoking break than it is for a non-smoker to take a similar break.(emphasis mine)
My Dad joined the US Navy in '45 (since he was about to be "invited" to join the army). If you smoked, you got a a smoke break every hour. If you didn't smoke, you didn't need a smoke break, now did you? Also cigarettes were free for the sailors -- at least everywhere my Dad was stationed. Philip Morris did his part for the boys. It took Dad 50 years to quit, by which time it was too late.
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So it's not the smoking itself, rather the fact you take regular breaks... What's to stop you taking regular breaks for other reasons? I find that taking 5 minutes to stand outside in the sun helps me greatly.
Ironically, i used to work for a company where smokers were allowed regular breaks to go outside and smoke, but non smokers weren't allowed to take equivalent breaks...
I have a cunning plan.. (Score:4, Funny)
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What about second hand smoke?
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What about second hand smoke?
"Who's the more foolish: The fool, or the fool who follows him?"
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Make 1 in 250 cigarettes have some explosives inside instead of what's normally in there. Now THAT would make smoking fun.
Re:I have a cunning plan.. (Score:5, Funny)
>Make cigarettes more damaging to health, and let Darwin sort em out!
My parents used to smoke Kent cigarettes a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. I remembered as a kid that it advertised the cigs had the "Micronite Filter" on each pack.
Years later, I found out that the "Micronite" was blue asbestos.
Yep.
--
BMO
Re:I have a cunning plan.. (Score:4, Informative)
They are one step ahead of you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_safe_cigarette [wikipedia.org]
No surprise here (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Hell, if you're gonna do something wrong at least do it right...
inhaling dangerous chemicals lowers IQ? (Score:2)
i'm shocked. cigarretes are known to constrict blood and oxygen flow. i bet people who smoke are limiting the blood and oxygen flow to their brain and this results in lower IQ results.
it's not the tobacco since a lot of smart people smoke cigars. it's the extras like uranium, polonium and hundreds of other chemicals that the tobacco companies spray on cigarretes that are really bad for you
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I used to joke that cigarettes had vitamin C in them...until I found out they did.
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i'm shocked. cigarretes are known to constrict blood and oxygen flow. i bet people who smoke are limiting the blood and oxygen flow to their brain and this results in lower IQ results.
it's not the tobacco since a lot of smart people smoke cigars. it's the extras like uranium, polonium and hundreds of other chemicals that the tobacco companies spray on cigarretes that are really bad for you
No, you got it wrong. Smoking does not make you dumb, but dumb people start smoking. It's right there in the summary: stupid people make poor choices regarding their own health.
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it's not the tobacco since a lot of smart people smoke cigars. it's the extras like uranium, polonium and hundreds of other chemicals that the tobacco companies spray on cigarretes that are really bad for you
And it's not just a health problem. Enemy countries are actively buying American tobacco to extract the uranium to make explosive devices with it.
And, even knowing that, tobacco companies continue to use the uranium aditives because they don't want to lose the massive sells to those enemy countries.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (Score:5, Insightful)
An unshaven sun-reddened face focuses all its concentration on a cigarette protruding directly in front of his nose. His lips are pursed as if to indicate that connecting the tip of that cigarette with that flame requires all of his concentration. If his eyes weren't hidden to prevent us from identifying him (or to keep us from identifying with the subject) we might see them as cross-eyed staring down his nose intent to satiate his addiction. His shirt (which is plain white) and knuckles are smeared haphazardly with grease and his skin glistens with a workingman's sweat. Whatever iconography that hangs from his neck (Isreali dog tags? a Star of David?) can only afford a cheap black cord. The subject is off center to the right with the background as a pitch black. Nothing but a single source of light coming from the left.
It amuses me that the site employs such a suggestive picture of smoking so that it almost screams to be a blue collar, unintelligent, near evil addiction. I understand this image adds to the effect of the article but if ever there was anti-marketing for smoking here it is at a site that claims to be objective in its name. Movies of yore portrayed the beautiful, the rich and the strong smoking. I can walk outside my office building and see well paid people smoking. It's disingenuous to portray it as only a blue collar problem no matter what statistics about IQ say. This only tells me that, on average, low IQs are more likely to succumb to well funded advertising or lack information about smoking. Not that they are any less powerful at breaking an addiction.
I find smoking abhorrent and disgusting but I also think that it detracts from your goals to say that smoking destroys your beauty when young people can see beautiful celebrities smoking. And I also think that a "Science" site shouldn't have such goals or propaganda baked into its articles (one way or the other).
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Smoking in the movies of the 40s and 50s is pretty appealing, I'll have to admit. There's two kinds of smoking, though.
The first kind is the continuous, repetitive chain smoking where everybody seems to have a cigarette going.
Then there's the kind of social smoking where you wonder what smoking was really like. I can remember a movie where neither character seemed to chain smoke, but instead after a meal the characters retired to the living room for drinks and they each enjoyed a (singular) cigarette take
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What's "Ill lit" about that picture? It is nicely lit from both sides, leaving a dramatic dark space so the flame of the lighter will show up nicely even against the white of the shirt. The stylist has done an excellent job of making the model who has only ever broken a sweat in the gym look grimy without sacrificing glamour.
It is a beautiful stock photo, and a well-crafted piece of commercial art.
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That is not grime, nor is that a dirty T-shirt. It's s very common type of dyed t-shirt, they come with that streaky look in any color, and the guy happens to have dark skin. I learned at a very young age that black and brown people weren't dirty; the color really doesn't rub or wash off. I have an Indian (as in Calcutta Indian) friend whose skin color and sheen is very much like that.
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Hey, I've got a beard almost exactly like that, you insensitive clod!. I'm a Unix admin [sourceforge.net], the black cord holds my SecureID key, and my tee-shirt looks like that after pulling cables beneath the raised floor.
As for the subject being off-center, haven't you ever heard of the rule of thirds [wikipedia.org]?
Let me see if I understand you correctly... (Score:2)
"People on the lower end of the average IQ tend to display poorer overall decision-making skills when it comes to their health..."
I can't even come up with a good joke for this, they've basically just put all that time and money into finding out that stupid people are more likely to make stupid choices.
I realise that the plural of Anecdote is not Data but I would think that at some point this connection would be obvious enough in day to day life that a study would be unnecessary.
Professor Of The Bleeding Obvious (Score:2)
"People on the lower end of the average IQ tend to display poorer overall decision-making skills when it comes to their health,' says Weiser."
Is this followed by a reference: "Stupid is as stupid does" (Gump F., 1994) ?
IQ correlates to income though (Score:2, Insightful)
It's fun to stay at the R-T-F-A. (Score:2)
"In the health profession, we've generally thought that smokers are most likely the kind of people to have grown up in difficult neighborhoods, or who've been given less education at good schools," says Prof. Weiser, whose study was reported in a recent version of the journal Addiction. "But because our study included subjects with diverse socio-economic backgrounds, we've been able to rule out socio-economics as a major factor. The government might want to rethink how it allocates its educational resources
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Smoking does seem to correlate with low income, which is all the more amusing considering how expensive smoking is in some places...
People with very little money, wasting it all on smoking, and then having insufficient money for food and other basic necessities...
Cause or consequence? (Score:2)
Article implies that people with lower IQ are more likely to start smoking. Sounds likely (smoking is not an intelligent decision). Several comments imply that smoking can lower your IQ. Sounds likely too (low-dose daily protracted poisoning by hundreds of different toxins can't do much good). Prevention should take both possibilities into account. If "Smoking will kill you" isn't enough, might "Smoking will fry your brain" be better? Probably not, but worth a try to counter "Smoking keeps you alert".
government to rethink education on smoking (Score:5, Funny)
BAD SMOKING!
This message has been brought to you by the Surgeon General's campaign against heart and lung disease, and is intended for viewers with lower IQs. If your IQ is above 95, this was not intended to be condescending in any way.
Tell that to these folks... (Score:3, Informative)
Lower [eflanger.com] IQ [allposters.com] huh [xanga.com]? Isn't [xanga.com] that [froggynews.net] interesting [xanga.com].
Re: (Score:2)
Does it really matter? They conducted the survey with army recruits and veterans.
The army life is known to attract people in the lower IQ ranges. It is also known to promote smoking. Good luck finding what caused what.
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I feel a a sudden urge to say "correlation != causation" in response to this statement.
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RTFA. 'Schoolchildren who have been found to have a lower IQ can be considered at risk to begin the habit, and can be targeted with special education and therapy to prevent them from starting or to break the habit after it sets in.' Sounds to me like the researchers believe that low IQ leads to smoking, not the reverse. They need to redo their study starting with school kids and checking to see which ones take up smoking.
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The article does include this sentence:
That seems to pretty strongly imply that the researchers believe there's an IQ -> smoking causation.
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All the yelling of "correlation is not causation" is pretty much the low mark of intellectual laziness on Slashdot. Most of the time when someone yells that, it actually means "I don't like the results of this research" or possibly "I like to look clever". In this case, I think it means "I only read the headline and I didn't like even that".
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"Israeli Army recruits and veterans" What is the average IQ of those not in the army??
Following the logic in the summary, it should be higher. From the summary:
'People on the lower end of the average IQ tend to display poorer overall decision-making skills when it comes to their health,' says Weiser.
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Re:Israeli Army recruits and veterans (Score:5, Informative)
Several years of military service in the IDF [wikipedia.org] is mandatory for young Israelis. After that they are considered lifetime reservists, can be called up for a months service every year, and for an unlimited duration when national security is threatened. This is one of the reasons some Palestinian groups give for targeting Israeli civilians - since every Israeli civilian is also a military reservist, these groups state that there is no such thing as an Israeli civilian in the traditional sense.
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Hate all you want, but neither the summary nor the article implied in any way that smoking caused a lowering of IQ. In fact, the article went on to say that this correlation indicates that gov't should use this information to adjust the way anto-smoking education should be directed. This indicates that they agree with you -- low IQ's tend to smoke, not the other way around.
So, what you are hating is your predisposition to make assumptions.
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Re:Another conclusion from this (Score:4, Interesting)
According to wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the_Wealth_of_Nations [wikipedia.org]
Israel is 34th best with a national average IQ of 94.
IF you're American, don't mock. The US is only 19th best globally with an average of 98.