Imagine you read an article that began like this:
“A reckoning is coming in gerontology. New studies show that
when a group of 95-year-olds is followed for five years, a greater proportion
die than when they are followed for only one.”
You’d probably think it was a story from The Onion. You’d
probably think the same if you read a story saying that people followed for
five years, versus those followed for only one, are more likely to catch cold,
fall in love, get in an auto accident, take a dream vacation, or discover the
presence of gambling at a certain café in Casablanca.
