Does a Hit Counter affect SERPs position?

Or does it just look tacky?

[larryhatch]

Studying the SERPs for my main search term, I noticed a sort of trend:

Google puts up pages of 10 results (web pages) each by default.
For my search term:

First page: Only one site showing hit counter, 9 do not.
Second page: TWO sites show hit counter, 8 do not.
Third page: Two hit counters, 8 without.
Fourth page: FOUR hit counters, 6 without ...
5th and 6th pages 1 and 3 hit counters ..

It seems like pages _without_ hit counters are likelier to rank higher.

Question: Is this a cause and effect relation?

How about simple coincidence, as in crappy / tacky pages rank low -AND-
Crappy / tacky pages tend to have hit counters.

I am considering removing my hit counter, but I rely on it to watch trends.

Any thoughts on this one? - Larry