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Men and baldness

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Men and baldness

by chidcguy » Fri Jun 20, 2008 5:35 pm
Most doctors dismiss male pattern baldness as a problem of heredity. A new theory, however, postulates that baldness can also result from number of external factors, such as a stressful urban lifestyle. Supporters of this new theory point out that balness is twice as common among male who live in cities as it is among those who live elsewhere.

Whaich of the following most weakens the new theory described above?

A - Scientists have developed several drugs that halt baldness in men and can be taken internally
B - Census reports show that most men who are born in large cities live almost their entire lives within the city of their birth to remain close to their families
C- Most men do not develop male pattern baldness until they reach the age of 55, at which point their thoughts turn to pursuing a more restful lifestyle
D- Men who never lived in large cities are those who are least likely to develop male pattern baldness
E-A study determined that bald men are less likely to marry and reproduce
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Re: Men and baldness

by nitin86 » Fri Jun 20, 2008 8:50 pm
chidcguy wrote:Most doctors dismiss male pattern baldness as a problem of heredity. A new theory, however, postulates that baldness can also result from number of external factors, such as a stressful urban lifestyle. Supporters of this new theory point out that balness is twice as common among male who live in cities as it is among those who live elsewhere.

Whaich of the following most weakens the new theory described above?

A - Scientists have developed several drugs that halt baldness in men and can be taken internally
B - Census reports show that most men who are born in large cities live almost their entire lives within the city of their birth to remain close to their families
C- Most men do not develop male pattern baldness until they reach the age of 55, at which point their thoughts turn to pursuing a more restful lifestyle
D- Men who never lived in large cities are those who are least likely to develop male pattern baldness
E-A study determined that bald men are less likely to marry and reproduce
IMO - C

A/B - out of scope/
D - irrelevant
E - out of scope
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by durgesh79 » Sat Jun 21, 2008 6:44 am
Nitin : why do you think B is out of scope .... i think B is the answer....

B says that most men and their families remain in the cities only. so there is a high chance for the baldness gene to remain in city only ... and this could be an explanation for more bald people in cities ....

C on the other hand says that after 55 people turn their thoughts to pursue more restful life .... but doesnt mention clearly that they get a stress free life.....

OA please
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by atlantic » Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:31 am
In test environment I would have chosen C.

To test the theory B should say something about men who live elsewhere. And it doesn't. We know that men who live in the city remain in their entire lives in the city, but what happens to men from other areas? Do they remain also or do they migrate to the cities?

In C the stressful livestyle theory is tested. Men only become bald after 55 when they start to persue a more relaxing life attitude. Some may not achive this different lifestyle, but we also cannot say that all of them haven't.
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by chidcguy » Sat Jun 21, 2008 9:46 am
OA is B

How ever, I feel that the OA is ambiguous for two reasons

(1) As per new theory stress not heredity causes baldness

Dont you guys think that we need to pick an answer that says either stress is not causing or heredity is causing the problem?

C exactly does that stress is not causing the problem

How can we decide that living close to one's family is heredity. Heredity is passed on by genes. Even if Father lives in the US and son lives in Europe, heredity is heredity.

From Durgesh's reasoning he seems to attack the point that "Supporters of this new theory point out that balness is twice as common among male who live in cities as it is among those who live elsewhere. "

I did attack the point A new theory, however, postulates that baldness can also result from number of external factors, such as a stressful urban lifestyle.

Ian/Stuart,

Thoughts on this?
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by durgesh79 » Sat Jun 21, 2008 10:22 am
I read C more carefelly ... but still not I'm not convinced...

All it is saying is that most men develope baldness at 55, at the same time they move to a more relaxed lifestyle..... may be they were stressed all the time till 45 to 55 and now its showing its effects .....

This is a classic example of when A happens, B also happens ... Doesnt mean that B caused A....
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by chidcguy » Sat Jun 21, 2008 10:41 am
I see what you are saying when you say A happens B also happens but there is no causation.

But all the while we are taught by prep books that if X is not causing Y some thing else is causing Y

Stress is not causing Baldness as per C because people are resting.

The only other thing we can bring out from the stimulus is heredity and possibly heredity is why they are turning bald after 55.

I understand that you have your own thoughts why B is correct. What do you think about my thoughts on why B is incorrect. Location or proximity is NOT a factor in determining whether a particular trait is hereditary or not.

Also to me the correct answer depends on what we are attacking. As I said you and me attacked two different pieces of the stimulus
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by durgesh79 » Sat Jun 21, 2008 10:57 am
i agree with you that we are attacking two different pieces...

Regarding your thoughts on B. I also agree that It doesnt say that people living is same location is factor for baldness....

but if B is true then most men in large cities almost live their entire lives within cities and the same logic can be applied to their sons (with the baldness gene with them) they'll also live in the same city.... So this explains that why there are more bald people in cities than elsewhere ..... and this was the main point of the new theory .....
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by chidcguy » Sat Jun 21, 2008 11:05 am
I see what your saying. I believe we arrived at different answers because of what we decided as the conclusion. Looks like as per OA my conclusion is wrong. How ever the key word new theory postulates that pulled me off in that direction. When you were solving the Q, Did you think that the conclusion was what you attacked?
Please do not post answer along with the Question you post/ask

Let people discuss the Questions with out seeing answers.
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by durgesh79 » Sat Jun 21, 2008 11:23 am
i think your direction was right, i also though in that direction .... its just that i felt C is too weak to support that ....

if it was something like,

Most men "in large cities take retirement at the age of 50 to lead a stressfree life " They also do not develop male pattern baldness until they reach the age of 55.

Then it was clear C...... :)
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by pinktoadette » Sat Jun 21, 2008 1:02 pm
Most doctors dismiss male pattern baldness as a problem of heredity. A new theory, however, postulates that baldness can also result from number of external factors, such as a stressful urban lifestyle. Supporters of this new theory point out that balness is twice as common among male who live in cities as it is among those who live elsewhere.


B - the new theory, contradicts to the hereditary part. The question is asking which one would weaken the new theory. Therefore, you have to find something that relates to heredity. Only answer B gives that, since these men are living close with their family, implying that they are bald because of family reasons.
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by niraj_a » Thu Jun 26, 2008 10:02 am
wierd, I would have picked C too, because to me, hereditary reasons deal with genes at birth rather than proximity to my bald brother for example.....
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by SUSHMA50 » Wed Oct 01, 2008 11:10 pm
I agree that the answer is B and it cannot be C. The reason being there are 2 theories. The first states that the reason is heredity and the second states that it can be any reason except heredity 'Most doctors dismiss male pattern baldness as a problem of heredity'. Thus in order to weaken the new theory above we will have to prove that no other factors except heredity is the reason for baldness
C states that stress is not the reason for baldness but definately there can be other external factors whose answer C does not give
In case of B the answer clearly states that heredity is the only reason and nothing else.

Is it clear?
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by amitabhprasad » Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:02 am
Still not clear, how can heredity be related to city or living close to the family ?
Looking at the reasoning I can see why "C" not correct, but still not clear how "B" is solution either.
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by codesnooker » Thu Oct 02, 2008 11:35 am
chidcguy wrote: From Durgesh's reasoning he seems to attack the point that "Supporters of this new theory point out that balness is twice as common among male who live in cities as it is among those who live elsewhere. "

I did attack the point A new theory, however, postulates that baldness can also result from number of external factors, such as a stressful urban lifestyle.

Ian/Stuart,

Thoughts on this?
First of all, it is very nice and interesting question. Initially I also picked (C) as my choice but indeed (B) is the correct option.

Chudcguy, I understand that you have attacked on conclusion, but is the attack is in proper direction? No. The option (C) does not postulates any reason that support the premise that males living in cities faces the baldness problem twice to countryside (elsewhere) males. It just says that there could be another reason of baldness, which could be common among both the cities' males and also the countryside's males.

Whereas if we look at the option (B), it clearly states that the men who born in cities are remained at cities for their entire life. So if cities' males are not moving to countryside and countryside males may or may not moving to cities (in reality, yes countryside people are moving to cities in search of work), then there are high chances that defected gene that cause baldness among males will remain in the cities.

So, Durgesh HAS NOT attack the following.

From Durgesh's reasoning he seems to attack the point that "Supporters of this new theory point out that balness is twice as common among male who live in cities as it is among those who live elsewhere. "

He is actually supporting the above statement.

Hope it clears everyone's doubt. :D
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