Hapgood

Penile Length Leads to Little Economic Growth

Probably not going to use this one in my Stat Lit class, but it is a shame. It’s obviously a good example why identifying probable mechanism is important. Less obviously it’s a great example of cherry picking — if you click through to the paper it is the GDP growth from 1960 to 1985 that is tracked (why that historical segment?) and other indicators show different things (Raw GDP to penile size, for example, demonstrates an “inverted U” pattern, with average penile lengths predicting large GDP, and extremes on either side predicting low GDP).