[run4yourlives]

That's stretching correlation to causation.

First, the two studies are more than 25 years apart. Society has changed, and so have we.

Second while participants believed they we "on a tv show" it's a logical leap to believe that this would somehow be a extenuating factor than if they were at a gathering of some other sort.

A 15% jump, to me, would show that the variable of the "TV" played a part.

There is absolutely no evidence to support that.

[bricestacey]

I also think it's a leap to say television caused this. If they really wanted to prove causation, they could have tested it back to back in different regions. Instead, they settled on the answer they appeared to be looking for all along, that it's just TV.