A recently completed study

Answer choices

1. A

   Weakens8% picked this

   The subjects who did not exercise regularly during the study tended to have diets that

   This provides an alternate explanation for why the non-exercisers died more often. It wasn't because they weren't exercising; it was because they were eating crappy food.

   8%
2. B

   No Impact1% picked this

   The subjects who did not exercise regularly during the study tended to blame their lack of exercise on

   We don't care why they didn't exercise, unless that reason (f.e. they have cancer and have lost the energy to jog around town) is itself causally linked to death. Being too busy / lacking time isn't a common sense cause of death, so this detail is irrelevant.

   1%
3. C

   Weakens, if anything2% picked this

   A large number of the deaths recorded were attributable to preexisting

   This has no impact because the answer isn't telling us whether these deaths were with people who were or weren't exercising. But if it were telling us "the people who died had a bunch of preexisting conditions / illnesses", then it would weaken by providing an alternate explanation for why they died (illness, not lack of exercise).

   2%
4. D

   Correct79% picked this

   Whether or not a given subject was to exercise during the study was determined by the researchers

   Why this is right

   This helps to rule out our alternate explanation that whether or not you were exercising was really caused by your underlying health in the first place. Our alternate explanation was, "Maybe it's just that the people who were already sick/enfeebled were not able to exercise, whereas the vital/healthy people were. Obviously the sick/enfeebled people died before the vital/healthy people." By telling us that whether or not a subject exercised was random, it rules out the idea that the Exercise-Group was already healthier and more likely to live longer to begin with.

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

   79%
5. E

   No Impact11% picked this

   A person who exercises regularly is probably doing so out of concern for his or

   Why someone would tend to exercise regularly is irrelevant to this argument. We're just trying to figure out whether in this study the regular exercise was the causal difference-maker for living longer.

   11%