An association between two types

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsPrinciple-Conform

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Stimulus

An association between two types of conditions does not establish that conditions of one type cause conditions of the other type. Even persistent and inviolable association is inconclusive; such association is often due to of the same kind of cause.

What this question is testing

Principle-Conform

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence gap.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question

17.

Which one of the following judgments most closely conforms to the principle

Answer choices

Wrong Conclusion7% picked this
Some people claim that rapid growth of the money supply is what causes inflation. But this is a naive view. What these people do
The argument should have introduced a third factor that could have caused both rapid growth of the money supply and inflation, rather than asserting that the two conditions are actually the same phenomenon.
7%
Correct78% picked this
People who have high blood pressure tend to be overweight. But before we draw any inferences, we should consider that an unhealthy lifestyle can
Why this is right
This points out that the correlation between high blood pressure and being overweight does not establish that one might cause the other because it could be that both are effects of the same common cause.
Skill tested: Principle-Conform · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
78%
Wrong Conclusion3% picked this
In some areas, there is a high correlation between ice cream consumption and the crime rate. Some researchers have proposed related third factors, but
Rather than asserting the correlation could have been coincidental, the argument should have suggested that a third factor could have caused both crime and ice cream consumption.
3%
Wrong Conclusion7% picked this
People's moods seem to vary with the color of the clothes they wear. Dark colors are associated with gloomy moods, and bright colors are
Rather than asserting a reverse causal relationship, the argument should have looked for a third factor that could be a cause of both the color of one’s clothing and one’s mood.
7%
Wrong Conclusion5% picked this
Linguists propose that the similarities between Greek and Latin are due to their common descent from an earlier language. But how are we to
Rather than asserting an alternative possible cause of two correlated factors, this argument offers an alternative cause of a single observed phenomenon.
5%

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