Fooled by Randomness?

We tell our students: "No theory without numbers and no numbers without theory."

But Forbes (Sep 18) includes: "Economic Dexterity ... Left-handed men with college educations earn 15% more than similarly schooled right-handed men, an academic study says. Using a detailed 1993 government survey of 5,000 persons, Lafayette College's Christopher S. Ruebeck and Johns Hopkins' Joseph E. Harrington, Jr. and Robert Moffitt found no differences for women. Over 33 pages they suggest no firm explanation for their conclusions, writing, 'We do not have a theory that reconciles all of these findings.'"