title: Do people whose names begin with "D" really die young?
abstract: It has been reported that professional baseball players whose first names begin with the letter "D" tend to die relatively young (E. L. Abel & M. L. Kruger, 2010). However, the statistical evidence for this claim is based on selective data and a statistical test that ignores important confounding influences. A valid test applied to more comprehensive data from the same source does not show a statistically significant relationship between initials and longevity. In addition, data for the years 1960 through 2004 for 6.7 million White, non-Hispanic California decedents do not replicate the claim that D's die young.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, Pomona College, Claremont, California 91711, USA. gsmith@pomona.edu
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001484:Baseball; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009275:Names; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013483:Superstitions / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States