May 15, 2001

4:48 AM

Oscar winners live longer...winning the coveted golden statuette can add four years to your life. BTW, the next article shows that half of heroin addicts die early.
Big surprise: "drugs = bad for ya" and "success = good for ya".
posted by nonharmful (9 comments total)

"Many people believe that millions of heroin addicts have just quit. It's not true. They've died."

"The thing that keeps you going is praise from your peers and getting favourable critical reviews."

All thats needed is to give out Oscars to millions of heroin addicts.
posted by stbalbach at 5:21 AM on May 15, 2001

I wonder if studies are good for you or bad for you. Any studies on that?

Oh, and speaking of winners and drugs...
posted by allaboutgeorge at 6:09 AM on May 15, 2001

Not that heroin is his drug of choice, but there's a Robert Downey Jr joke in here somewhere.
posted by lia at 8:05 AM on May 15, 2001

Does winning make you live longer -- or are people who are more healthy also more likely to win?

Or could it perhaps be that being rich makes you both more healthy and more likely to win?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 8:21 AM on May 15, 2001

Being alive makes you more likely to win.
posted by rodii at 8:37 AM on May 15, 2001

Or it could be that sinful pride (see dukejohnson's post) boosts longevity.
posted by caraig at 11:14 AM on May 15, 2001

Oscar winners don't do drugs? I just think they're able to afford better quality.
posted by skallas at 4:18 PM on May 15, 2001

Hmmm. Correlation does not imply causality. It could just as easily be that Oscar nominees are more likely to win if a) they are healthier, b) they are happier, c) they live and work longer thus having more chances to win. I would hope the study authors would find ways to exclude such correlations before making a causality assumption.
posted by dhartung at 5:22 PM on May 15, 2001

Does anyone else notice that if half of those drug users die early, then half must not? Which is to say they live longer.
This is like saying half the population is below the average intelligence, and then being surprised. That's the meaning of average!
posted by tiamat at 10:24 PM on May 15, 2001