#17 - Advocate: A study of people who had recently recovered

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[lathlee]

this question, actually game me so much trouble during actual test, I don't frigging see how this is causal error as E) says.

[Adam Tyson]

The big causal clue in this stimulus is "counterproductive". That's an action word, typical of causal reasoning, and means that it causes things to be worse.

The argument starts off with a correlation between greater severity of colds and taking cold medicine. The author then concludes that taking cold medicine made things worse. In other words, the cold medicine was causing the severe symptoms. Of course, this didn't have to be the case - it could be that folks with more severe colds are the ones taking the cold medicine, such that the cause and effect are actually reversed. Having a more severe cold causes people to take the medicine.

Watch for that active language, lathlee, especially when the evidence is about a correlation.