I echo the other commenters that this is a textbook example of bad science, bad statistics, and bad journalism. This specific instance has since been thoroughly discredited. Other commenters have posted excellent critiques of the original article; here’s one in a scholary journal as well: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212094715300517 .
See Andrew Gelman’s blog for more on the context around it
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