Comments on Stack and Gundlach’s “The Effect of Country Music on Suicide:” an “Achy Breaky Heart” may not Kill you

Stack & Gundlach (1992) report a strong link between country music & metropolitan suicide rates for whites. In this article, it is argued that Stack & Gundlach fall into the methodological trap of the ecological fallacy & present weak arguments on causality by purporting that a country music subculture, at least partially, explains suicides among whites in metropolitan areas. The present authors conclude that inferences about individual behaviour drawn from aggregate data are fallacious & that Stack & Gundlach fail to provide compelling evidence to support that country music is any different from other types of music in its relationship to individual life events & suicide. (13 refs.)