Causality vs. Corelation Part II

In my recent post Causality vs. Correlation I wrote about how an incomplete representation of facts can lead to a half truth which is far worse than a lie. Here is another stark example of the irrational use of correlation in statistics. A study recently made a comment that students of history tend to have more active sexual lives than their peers. It goes on to say that students with a more active sexual life also get certain grades. No attempt whatsoever is made to establish the much needed causality. In the absence of any such scientific explanation are we to assume that people who study history just have higher levels of hormones? Should a parent whose child has selected History as a college in subject be more worried about the threat of STDs given the sexual behaviour statistics of their peer group? Sounds irrational right? It is precisely this kind of mindless representation of statistics that give it a bad name. Research for the sake of research does more harm than good to the subject.