Critical Reasoning

Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

When people engage in activities that help others, their brain releases endomorphins, the brain's natural opiates, which induce in people a feeling of well-being. It has been suggested that regular release of endomorphins increases people's longevity, and a statistic on adults who regularly engage in volunteer work helping others shows that they live longer, on average, than adults who do not volunteer. However, that statistic would be what we would expect even if volunteering does not boost longevity, because _________.

A) in the communities studied, women were much more likely to do regular volunteer work than men were, and women tend to live longer than men do

B) the number of young adults who do regular volunteer work is on the increase

C) the feelings of well-being induced by endomorphins can, at least for a time, mask the symptoms of various conditions and diseases, provided the symptoms are mild

D) it is rare for a person to keep up a regular schedule of volunteer work throughout his or her life

E) some people find that keeping a commitment to do regular volunteer work becomes a source of stress in their lives

OA to follow...

A) is out of scope, as the passage doesn't differentiate between gender at all
B) seems right to me. An increase in the number of volunteers will create an up trend in the number of volunteers that live longer
C) is irrelevant to the argument
D) is irrelevant to the argument
E) doesn't support the argument, also stress has adverse effect on longevity

P.S. What does OA mean? I'm new here.

Hi man_gman,

Welcome to the BTG board! Please make yourself at home...

OA = Official Answer

BlindVision wrote:Which of the following most logically completes the argument?

When people engage in activities that help others, their brain releases endomorphins, the brain's natural opiates, which induce in people a feeling of well-being. It has been suggested that regular release of endomorphins increases people's longevity, and a statistic on adults who regularly engage in volunteer work helping others shows that they live longer, on average, than adults who do not volunteer. However, that statistic would be what we would expect even if volunteering does not boost longevity, because _________.

A) in the communities studied, women were much more likely to do regular volunteer work than men were, and women tend to live longer than men do

B) the number of young adults who do regular volunteer work is on the increase

C) the feelings of well-being induced by endomorphins can, at least for a time, mask the symptoms of various conditions and diseases, provided the symptoms are mild

D) it is rare for a person to keep up a regular schedule of volunteer work throughout his or her life

E) some people find that keeping a commitment to do regular volunteer work becomes a source of stress in their lives

OA to follow...

IMO E

A. No distinction btw male female is discussed! Eliminate!
B. Neither about youngs!Eiminate!
C.The case in question is not well being but what is the reason behind if volunteering does not boost longevity,?
D.Neutral tone. So what?
E. This is correct. This options shows that volunteering deos not boost longevity because it causes stress.

In these types of questions if a sentence finishes with "since, because, that" look for a supporting assumption or missing assumption!

Here what I assumed the answer would be is something that irrespective of volunteering would show that the group of people which was surveyed lives longer.

According to me A is the prospective answer.

Hi,

this is an assumption + weaken question in disguise.

What additional premise would weaken the conclusion that -> {volunteer work helping others shows that they live longer, on average, than adults who do not volunteer}


In causal reasoning terms- if we give an alternate cause for the stated effect of longevity ;the conclusion that volunteer work leads to this will be weakened.


answer choice A tells us that women who are inherently blessed with longevity make up a majority off the volunteer worker group. Hence the conclusion - {volunteer work = longevity} is weakened with this alternate cause for stated effect.


Pranay is spot on !!!

Has to be A;

However, that statistic would be what we would expect even if volunteering does not boost longevity, because _________.

=> Statistics is as expected; that adults who regularly engage in volunteer work live longer even when volunteering does not increase longevity;

Thus there has to be some other cause behind 'Statistics showing that adults live longer';
hence A is the clear answer.

Confirm with the OA!!

OA = A

In this, we need to prove that there's a third cause for that someone to live longer apart from volunteering .

A says that women involve more in volunteering than men , hence women live longer than men . Doesn't this disprove what we are actually looking for ?

A it is.

We should rule out the possibility of the brain endomorphins role and still support the statistics.A does it undoubtedly.

Deepthi -

We are looking for another reason why the statistics would correspond, in other words a reason why those who volunteer would also happen to be those who live longer. So even if there is no cause and effect between the two things mentioned, why do they statistics correspond?

So there is a third factor here that causes both of the things we have mentioned -- women are more likely to volunteer and to live longer.

A common example of this type of thing is: "In the Southern United States greater sales of ice cream correspond to increased rates of violent crime." So which is the cause and which is the effect? Does ice cream make people violent? Do people who have committed violent crimes crave ice cream?

Can you guess the actual cause of both of these two?

The answer is increased heat. Scientists have determined that somewhere around 90 degrees Fahrenheit is peak of violence. I, for one, get a lot more impatient when it is hot outside. And of course hot weather means more ice cream sold as well.

Hope it helps!

Thanks David . I get the point , but , what upsets me is the series that follows in A .

Leaving behind men and women - ' X were much more likely to do regular volunteer work than Y and X tend to live longer than Y ' .

I assumed this is exactly what we need to impugn and that there's no third cause that was implicitly stated . Should we assume that the third cause entirely relies on the gender and has got nothing to do with the cause and effect ?

What do you mean

"there's no third cause that was implicitly stated . Should we assume that the third cause entirely relies on the gender and has got nothing to do with the cause and effect ?"

I do not really understand this question.

The question tells you not to focus on the supposed cause and effect, it says "However, that statistic would be what we would expect even if volunteering does not boost longevity" So we are supposed to through out the cause and effect and look for some other reason to explain why the statistics move together.

So let's say people who exercise more are healthier. Then we say, that even if exercise did not make you healthy we would still expect this result because _____ . So we are looking for another thing that would be the cause BOTH of people exercising more AND of them being healthier. So we can say that people who make better choices in life are those who exercise more and because they make better choices they are also healthier.

In the question above it it gender that causes both living longer and volunteering more. It did not have to be gender. It could have said "wealthier people live longer and they volunteer more" or something like that. You just need something that explains why they both happen rather than making one the cause of the other.

Does that help?

Ya , I get the point that a third cause must have trigerred both acts . But what I am trying to explain is- in 'A' , they never stated the third cause ( gender ) upfront ,rather ,have put it under cover ( by saying men and women) .