Those here who fire off value judgements without any additional knowledge or having read the original study make me grin. That is about as meaningful as judging the quality of music from the cover of a CD.

The airtime of country music was just one of many variables studied. It did make the title for it is a catchy attention grabber. For the reason McGrath has pointed out and more reasons this effect alone should not be taken very serious. Scientifically much more interesting (but without music angle) are the effect not found. The effect is independent of divorce, southernness, poverty, and gun availability.

Wolfgang