Researchers have found that people

Answer choices

1. A

   Strengthens4% picked this

   The study found that for people who drank three or more cups of coffee daily, the additional risk of heart disease increased

   This makes it seem like 5 cups is worse than 4 cups, which is worse than 3 cups. So this answer makes us think that 2 cups would carry lower risk of heart disease than would 5 cups.

   4%
2. B

   No Impact4% picked this

   Per capita coffee consumption has been declining over the past 20 years because of the increasing popularity of soft drinks and

   It doesn't make any difference how popular or unpopular coffee consumption is in the world. We're only analyzing whether those who do drink coffee are raising their risk of heart disease by doing so.

   4%
3. C

   Correct81% picked this

   The study did not collect information that would show whether variations in level of coffee consumption are directly related to variations in level of

   Why this is right

   This obliquely suggests an Alternate Explanation for why the heavy coffee drinkers have higher risk of heart disease. Whenever LSAT presents a correlation, (ppl who are X are more likely to be Y), and the author assumes some causal explanation (X causes Y), then the author fails to consider ... Reverse Causality -- maybe Y causes X Third Factor -- maybe Z causes X and Y This answer is suggesting that maybe people who have lots of stress are the heavy coffee drinkers (e.g., air traffic controllers, police detectives, wall street workers, ER physicians). The stress is the third factor that both causes heavy coffee drinking and causes increased risk in heart disease (it's identified as a major causal factor). That would lead to there being a correlation between heavy coffee drinking and higher risk of heart disease, even though it's the stress, not the coffee, that is causing the higher risk of heart disease. And if coffee was never the cause in the first place, then these researchers' cutting back on coffee isn't going to have any effect on their heart disease risk.

   Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   81%
4. D

   No Impact7% picked this

   Subsequent studies have consistently shown that heavy smokers consume coffee at about 3 times the

   The distinction between smokers and nonsmokers is irrelevant, because the statistic we're going off of has already assured us that other risk factors such as age and smoking habits have been controlled for. The statistic is saying, "Whatever the risk is for a 40 year old nonsmoker who doesn't drink 5+ cups of coffee per day, the risk for a 40 year old nonsmoker who does drink 5+ cups is 2.5 times as much". And the same thing would go for smokers. Whatever the default risk level is for smokers, the risk level for smokers who also drink 5+ cups of coffee is 2.5 times as high.

   7%
5. E

   Strengthens4% picked this

   Subsequent studies have shown that heavy coffee consumption tends to cause an elevated blood-cholesterol level, an immediate indicator of

   This increases the plausibility that the coffee drinking was the cause of the elevated risk of heart disease by describing the causal mechanism by which those two things are connected. Since this helps to confirm that heavy coffee drinking is a cause of increased risk of heart disease, it strengthens the notion that the researchers will be lowering their risk of heart disease by lowering their coffee consumption.

   4%