Correlation is Not Causation: Museums and Elite Colleges

Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution finds:

How to get your kid into a better college:

The only out-of-school activity that increased the likelihood of a student ending up enrolled at an elite college was parental [sic] visits to art museums.

That is correlation, not causation....  Read more here. How about this?

Two types of participation made it more likely students would end up at elite colleges: yearbook or school newspapers and “hobby clubs.”  ...Numerous activities had no apparent impact on whether or not students will end up in college — elite or otherwise. School plays, interscholastic individual sports, intramurals, cheerleading, academic honor societies, public service clubs — no impact is clear from any of them.

... What do you all think of these results?

Here's more from the link above explaining why the authors think the correlation between parents going to art museums and kids getting into elite colleges is causal:

And to the extent that parents who visit art museums (even without their children) are likely to talk about high art and culture, their children (if they pay even a little attention) will pick up cultural knowledge that their peers lack. And if those parents teach their children to name drop, there could be an impact, especially if it allows students to shine in interviews. “A chance mention of the new Bertolucci film or the Ruscha show at the Whitney may tip an applicant from one pile to another,” the authors write.

This is telling, "There’s no correlation between visiting art museums and ending up at a top college yourself." I wonder what else you could find that is "caused" by parents going to art museums?

Comments

[hj]

Well Brideshead Revisited would suggest it can produce an extremely distant and emotionally detached father (marvelous performance from John Gielgud) with the result that the son (Charles Ryder) falls in love with a beautiful rich blond homosexual at college. Does that answer your question?

[calmo]

I'm not saying that I have the last word on causation. (Not even any of the foregoing words.)
Shoot, I'm not sure I can even lift the Principle of Induction [And if those parents teach their children to name drop, there could be an impact, especially if it allows students to shine in interviews ] anymore to parade out some distinction between causation, and that coincidental-like artificial second-rate masquerading wannabe upstart, correlation.
And this will not be the first time I've fanned on this pitch. (Shall I make a plea for a soft lob?) I could get to base on this with a little peer pressure I'm sure. [their children (if they pay even a little attention) will pick up cultural knowledge that their peers lack.] It's not that I'm out of my league and have no peers, but the league won't have me. The peer pressure is nasty, frightfully nasty.
My parents said it would be like this...

[Richard]

I'd really like to see a stepwise regression (or better, factor analysis) on this, with income thrown in.

After normalizing the data, I betchya that the largest eigenvalue is still income, and by a largish amount. Mind you, correlation != causality -- but after adjusting for income, do parental museum visits really explain much variance?

[calmo]

The devil is causing me to make a further entry.
You have been warned.
(Just not by me.) [Another warning for the dim... people...]
Arm yourselves with the syntax, tin tacks, hob nail boots...tea pot lids, toupees...the woiks.

This is telling,"There’s no correlation between visiting art museums and ending up at a top college yourself."

So no correlation after all that time spent with your daughter gawking at the artefacts? Your daughter is just so much more receptive...and distraction-resistant, not like some.
Admit it: you couldn't take your eyes off the janitor. He minced across the floor like Fred Astaire and you might as well have been on the moon. Your daughter, though, was busy taking notes, soaking up some culture, educating herself about those historic moments that brought us here ...from the caves...the trees, maybe...who knows and who cares when you have snappy janitors like that! You could hold the broom for him, you could.

So telling it was...

I wonder what else you could find that is "caused" by parents going to art museums?

Sounds so deadly, no? Beware those brain-deadening trips to the art museums, you parents. (The devil has a huge discount for grand parents.) Turns out your infirmament is not accidental, not spurious and not merely correlated, but caused. Maybe even planned...