More Fun with Correlations

As we explored in an earlier post there are some interesting correlations (at the state level) between the number of references to beer and Christianity in the geoweb relative to obesity. (Recap: while it looks like Christianity is causing obesity it really a matter of income).

We're starting to look deeper at the interrelation of content on the geoweb but before we do, we thought we finally post a couple more obesity correlations. And to reiterate, the obesity data is coming from the CDC, not us.

This time around we compared the relative frequency of geoweb references to "feminist" and "gay" to the offline level of obesity at the state level. As the two graphs below demonstrate, states with more references to these two topics are less obese. Again, per capita income is likely an important (albeit not the only) factor in shaping these variables.

It is, however, interesting to look at the outliers from the general trend, e.g., Colorado in particular. Although it has the lowest level of obesity in any of the states, the relative number of references to "gay" and "feminist" in its cyberscape is much lower than states with similar obesity. In other words, to fit into the overall norm of U.S. states, Coloradans need to either (1) gain a lot more weight or (2) start using the terms "gay" and "feminist" more.

Food (pun intended) for thought. Stay tuned as we belly up for some falafel, wine and shepherd's pie.

Feminist and Obesity

Gay and Obesity