THE EFFECT OF COUNTRY-MUSIC ON SUICIDE - AN ACHY-BREAKY HEART MAY NOTKILL YOU - COMMENTS

Stack and Gundlach (1992) report a strong link between country music a nd metropolitan suicide rates for whites. In this article, we argue th at the authors (1) fall into the methodological trap of the ''ecologic al fallacy'' and (2) present weak arguments on causality by purporting that a country music subculture, at least partially, explains suicide s among whites in metropolitan areas. We conclude that inferences abou t individual behavior drawn from aggregate data are fallacious and tha t the authors fail to provide compelling evidence to support that coun try music is any different from others types of music in its relations hip to individual life events and suicide.