Chocolate Makes You Smart!

Some blog followers might be interested in a recent post “Chocolate Makes You Smart!” [Hake (2012)]. The abstract reads:

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ABSTRACT: Christopher Green (2012) at http://bit.ly/QgYYgr of the TIPS list pointed to “Chocolate consumption and Nobel Prizes: A bizarre juxtaposition if there ever was one” by Ashutosh Jogalekar (2012) at http://bit.ly/TRyrSL. Jogalekar berated a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Franz H. Messerli (2012) at http://bit.ly/WHLfCh titled “Chocolate Consumption, Cognitive Function, and Nobel Laureates.”

Messerli plotted “Nobel Laureates per capita” vs “Chocolate Consumption in (kg/yr) per capita)” and found a positive correlation r = 0.791 with p < 0.0001. Does that correlation imply causation? While awaiting Randomized Control Trials (RCT’s) in which the inhabitants of randomly selected countries are provided with placebos in place of chocolate, the BBC’s Charlotte Pritchard (2012) at http://bbc.in/QfBtUZ sought anecdotal information and found it in testimonials by Nobel Laureates Christopher Pissarides http://bit.ly/WKpmlK, Robert Grubbs http://bit.ly/SkF6ag, and Eric Cornell http://bit.ly/zF7BZh, all of whom attributed their awards to their addiction to chocolate.

So that seems to clinch it! CHOCOLATE MAKES YOU SMART ! ; - ) despite “The Internet Blowhard's Favorite Phrase” [Engber (2012)] at http://slate.me/TVkUtm "correlation does not imply causation"- see also the comic http://xkcd.com/552/.
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To access the complete 10 kB post please click on http://bit.ly/QheB7E.


Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
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REFERENCES [URL shortened by http://bit.ly/ and accessed on 24 Nov 2012.]

Hake, R.R. 2012. “Chocolate Makes You Smart!” online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://bit.ly/QheB7E. Post of 24 Nov 2012 10:34:31-0800 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post are being transmitted to several discussion lists.