#18 - Medical researcher: A survey of more than 1 million

[Adam Tyson]

I'm not entirely sure I understand your question, Dancing, but even if we removed "probably" from the stimulus, answer B would not be the flaw in the argument, because the argument would still allow for the possibility that other things could also cause differences in health.

An answer like B would be the flaw if the argument was that sleep deprivation was THE cause of better health, or that these problems were SOLELY due to sleeping more. Or, perhaps, if the author were to say that a particular person has a strong immune system, and that they therefore must have some sleep deprivation. Those conclusions would fail to account for other possible causes.

[Dancingbambarina]

I'm not entirely sure I understand your question, Dancing, but even if we removed "probably" from the stimulus, answer B would not be the flaw in the argument, because the argument would still allow for the possibility that other things could also cause differences in health.

An answer like B would be the flaw if the argument was that sleep deprivation was THE cause of better health, or that these problems were SOLELY due to sleeping more. Or, perhaps, if the author were to say that a particular person has a strong immune system, and that they therefore must have some sleep deprivation. Those conclusions would fail to account for other possible causes.

Thanks so much Adam!

I understand now.

I was just also confused that if for the sake of causal argument, "probably" was not in the stimulus' conclusion, surely B would still be wrong becasue the central assumption of causality is there is ONE cause, and so B wouldn't represent flawed logic of this causal conclusion?

Thanks so much.