?Ecological Fallacy

[HWADE@aol.com]

Daniel Strom, Ph.D., states that Cohen's work is subject to the "ecologic
fallacy", because it meets this definition, which he quotes:
>The ecologic fallacy is "An error in interpreting associations >between
ecologic indices.  It is committed by mistakenly >assuming that, because the
majority of a group has a >characteristic, the characteristic is related to a
health state >common in the group" (Slome C, Brogan DR, Eyres SJ, Lednar >W.
 Basic Epidemiological Methods and Biostatistics - A >Workbook. Boston: Jones
and Bartless, 1986, Chapter 9 & p. >306).

I suppose another example of the ecologic fallacy is the relation between
iodine and goiter.

We all know that living in an area with a lack of iodine in soil (majority of
a group has this characteristic) causes an greater incidence of goiter ( a
health state common to the group).