Sometimes studies determine things that are obvious! But this does not mean they are useless!
A new Gallup poll on smoking rates has determined that states with high rates of college education and high cigarette taxes have the least amount of smokers. That would appear to confirm a bunch of NewsFeed’s prejudices: states with low cigarette taxes are full of chain-smoking high-school dropouts with nothing better to do, while states with high cigarette taxes are full of coddled intellectuals too scared to take even a little puff even though it’s totally not going to kill them and all the cool kids are doing it.
On the matter of taxes, though, the study takes pains to point out that correlation does not imply causation: high cigarette taxes could make people smoke less, or states with a less-nicotine-addicted populace could see a smaller political cost in raising such taxes. Likewise, states with stricter measures against lighting up in public also had lower rates of smoking — but again, the poll did not delve into the issue of which of these facts influenced the other.
Utah was the state with the lowest proportion of smokers (13%), though it also has relatively low cigarette tax. This would appear to be due to the influence of Mormonism, which frowns upon vice. Kentucky and West Virginia had the highest smoking rate among adults, at 31%. The national average, the poll found, is 21%. (via LiveScience)