Re:Loneliness may warp our genes, and our immune systems
by rlpb on Monday November 30, 2015 @01:18PM
(#10650798)
Again, this finds a correlation, not causation. There could be some external factor which influences both measured metrics.
Canli as quoted clearly does understand the difference, because he states that one predicts the other, which is distinguishing it from causation. But the article as written implies causation without any justification for this additional leap.
> What Canli finds really interesting about Cole's results is that people who felt lonely one year had increased gene activity around inflammation and norepinephrine later on. And people who had increased inflammation felt lonelier the next year. "It's a two-way street," he said. "Loneliness predicted biological changes, and biological changes predicted changes in loneliness."