OG People who do volunteer work

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OG People who do volunteer work

by AbeNeedsAnswers » Tue Jul 25, 2017 7:54 pm

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People who do regular volunteer work tend to live longer, on average, than people who do not. It has been found that 'doing good.' a category that certainly includes volunteer work, releases endorphins, the brain's natural opiates, which induce in people a feeling of well-being. Clearly, there is a connection: Regular releases of endorphins must in some way help to extend people's lives.

Which of the following, it true most seriously undermine the force of the evidence given as support the hypothesis that endorphins promote longevity

(A) People who do regular volunteer work are only somewhat more likely than others to characterize the work they do for as a 'doing good.'

(B) Although extremely high levels of endorphins could be harmful to health, such levels are never reached as a result of the natural release of endorphins.

(C) There are many people who have done some volunteer work but who do not do such work regularly.

(D) People tend not to become involved in regular volunteer work unless they are healthy and energetic to begin with.

(E) Releases of endorphins are responsible for the sense of well-being experienced by many long-distance runners while running.

D

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by elias.latour.apex » Thu Jul 27, 2017 3:24 am

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As always, we should read the question first. Once we do so, we see that our goal is to weaken the conclusion.

It is important to read the text with a proper mindset. Once we know that our job is to weaken, we should have a suspicious and argumentative mindset. We should be prepared ahead of time to disagree with the conclusion.

In this case, the argument basically says A and B happen together, so A must cause B.

How do we know that? Isn't it possible that B causes A? Isn't it also possible that something else (C for example) causes both A and B? Or maybe it's just a coincidence. Maybe A occurs 99% of the time and so when B happens, it always correlates.

In this case, it is claimed that volunteer work causes people to be healthy and live longer. Yet answer choice D points out that unless people are already healthy, they generally cannot do volunteer work. It seems far more likely that being healthy causes volunteer work than that volunteer work causes one to be healthy.
Elias Latour
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