Critical Reasoning

It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young adults live longer than those who never marry. This dose not show that marriage causes people to live longer, since, as compared with other people of the same age, young adults who are about to get married have fewer of the unhealthy habits that can cause a person to have a shorter life, most notably smoking and immoderate drinking of alcohol.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?

A. Marriage tends to cause people to engage less regularly in sports that involve risk of bodily harm.
B. A married person who has an unhealthy habit is more likely to give up that habit than a person with the same habit who is unmarried.
C. A person who smokes is much more likely than a nonsmoker to marry a person who smokes at the time of marriage, and the same is true for people who drink alcohol immoderately.
D. Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give up an unhealthy habit after marriage do not resume the habit later in life.
E. Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke, those who never marry live as long as those who marry.

OA: E

P.S: @ Verbal Experts - Though I got this Qs correct, I'd like to know your EXPLANATION, especially why EXACTLY Option A and C are wrong! Could you please share your DETAILED ANALYSIS on this CR ?

RBBmba@2014 wrote:@ Verbal Experts - Though I got this Qs correct, I'd like to know your EXPLANATION, especially why EXACTLY Option A and C are wrong! Could you please share your DETAILED ANALYSIS on this CR ?

Ok, first let's get straight what is going on with this argument. The argument is saying that while people who marry as young adults live longer, marriage is not the reason for the additional longevity. Rather the cause is that these people also don't smoke or drink immoderately.

This argument involves seeing a distinction between correlation and causation. Correlation versus causation is a theme that shows up regularly in GMAT critical reasoning questions.

In this case, there is a correlation between marriage and absence of unhealthy habits. So according to the argument, marriage does not cause longevity. Rather the absence of unhealthy habits is the reason for longevity and is correlated with marriage.

A) This actually weakens the argument. The argument is that marriage is only correlated with longevity and is not the cause of longevity, but what is said in this answer choice implies that actually marriage causes longevity by causing people to reduce engagement in sports that involve risk of bodily harm.

B) If anything this weakens the argument in that it indicates that married people are more likely to give up unhealthy habits than are unmarried people. However that could be a correlative rather than causative relationship. So really this answer choice does not make much difference. In any case it does not strengthen the argument.

C) This is irrelevant. The question is whether marriage causes longevity or is merely correlated with an absence of unhealthy habits, which absence in turn causes longevity. The fact that people with similar habits tend to marry each other has no bearing on the validity of that argument.

D) This does not tell us whether longevity is caused by marriage or correlated with marriage.

E) This one shows that people who do not have unhealthy habits and don't get married live just as long as people who do not have those habits and do get married. So getting married makes no difference in the longevity of people who do not have those unhealthy habits. This additional information backs up the argument that it's the absence of unhealthy habits rather than marriage that causes longevity.

So the best answer is E.

Thanks for the explanation

As explained above:

In this case, there is a correlation between marriage and absence of unhealthy habits. So according to the argument, marriage does not cause longevity. Rather the absence of unhealthy habits is the reason for longevity and is correlated with marriage.

This is what is said in option B, that marriage and unhealthy habits have a correlation. I am not able to understand, why option B is wrong.
Please explain a little further.

The point of the argument is that marriage does NOT cause longevity.

So to strengthen the argument probably we need something that indicates that marriage does not cause longevity.

B says that married people are more likely to give up unhealthy habits. In a sense then, B is saying that, if anything, marriage causes people to give up unhealthy habits, and so indirectly marriage causes longevity. So what that indicates is contrary to what the argument says.

At the same time, one could make the point that that marriage causes people to give up those habits is not clear from what B says. In that case, marriage and giving up unhealthy habits are correlated while the former may not be a cause of the latter. OK, great. So given that interpretation what B says does not go against the argument. In fact, what B says does in a way go along with one PREMISE of the argument, that people who are married are less likely to have certain habits.

However, NEITHER interpretation of B strengthens the CONCLUSION of the argument. In order to strengthen the argument we need something that somehow indicates that what the argument says is correct, rather than something that merely does not go against it.

B does not show that marriage does NOT cause longevity. That's the point. It does not indicate anything one way or the other about marriage and longevity.

What B does do is trick you into thinking that it says something relevant, but notice, there is in what B says nothing about longevity. In fact for all we know from what B says, giving up those habits makes no difference in longevity.

Contrast that with what E says. E says that regardless of whether they are married, people without certain habits have similar lifespans. So, married or not married - no difference.

So what E says indicates that marriage makes no difference, supporting the CONCLUSION of the argument.

It's amazing what time can do. When I first saw this question on the forum, months ago, I found it a bit confusing, and was happy to see an explanation. This time I read the question -- and immediately I knew that E was the answer. Here is why:

The passage states: Those who marry young live longer than those who don't marry young.
The passage also says: This does not mean that MARRIAGE causes people to live longer.
The Passage explains: Because - folks who ANYWAY have healthier habits, tend to marry young. (So marriage wasn't the reason for longer life, healthier habit was.)

Question: What strengthens the argument?

The only way to STRENGTHEN this argument is to prove either of the two things:

1) Folks who are healthier tend to marry young --- sort of re-iterating the argument
2) Marriage did not contribute to longevity.

Options:

A: WRONG because it says "marriage makes people quit unhealthy habits". This does not strengthen the argument we have set out to strengthen.
B: WRONG. Again because it says marriage makes you quit unhealthy habit. But we are trying to prove that marriage DOES NOT make u healthier per se.
C: IRRELEVANT. No relation. If a smoker marries a smoker, drinker marries a drinker..says nothing about Marriage and Longevity.
D: WRONG. Again proves that Marriage has a healthy effect on people. We are trying to prove the contrary.
E. Right. Because it says: "Healthy people, or people with healthier habits, even those who don't marry when young, tend to live as long as those who marry young". So, proven. Proven their own healthy habits contributed to longer life, not marriage.