More bad news for the correlation trolls

I’ve written before (here, here, and here) about the absurdity of blaming the rise of video games for cultural calamities like a decrease in attendance at National Parks that happen to take place over the same period of time. The problem is that correlation is not causation–or to put it in more simple terms, the fact that two things happen at the same time doesn’t mean one causes the other.

Now there is even more evidence that the explosion in the market for video games has not "dumbed down" our culture. Quite the contrary, in fact:

In 1999/2000, there were 24m visits to Britain’s biggest museums. In 2007/08, the figure was 40m. Between 1999 and 2001, Britain scrapped entry charges, so the increase is partly attributable to that. Still, it was a lot of people. And another factor is the popularity of blockbuster exhibitions, such as the Terracotta Army show at the British Museum–which are seldom free, so scrapping charges cannot be the sole explanation. In most of the great cities of the West, museums now dominate the lists of most popular tourist attractions. More people go to the Louvre each year than to the Eiffel Tower; in London, three museums–the Tate, the British Museum and the National Gallery–each attract more visitors than the London Eye.

Score another point for Steven Johnson.