Logical Reasoning

PT151 · S3 · Q22 Insurers and doctors are well aware

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Insurers and doctors are well aware that the incidence of lower-back injuries among office workers who spend long hours sitting is higher than that among people who regularly do physical work of a type known to place heavy stresses on the lower back.

Conclusion

Office equipment and furniture are not properly designed to promote workers' health.

Evidence

There's a higher incidence of lower back injuries among office workers than among people doing work known to place heavy stress on the lower back.

Evaluate

There are two issues: one is a move from "higher incidence of lower back injuries" to "not promoting workers' health". We could certainly marshal a counterargument that even if office jobs are worse when it comes to lower backs, they're better when it comes to many other measurements of workers' health.

The more likely one they're testing is the Curious Fact / Explanation template, which is so common on Strengthen and Weaken.

Curious Fact: why do office workers get more lower back injuries than people who do stressful back labor? Author's Story: the office furniture is terrible for their back and causes the injuries

We weaken this template by - providing some OTHER WAY to explain the curious fact - undermining the plausibility of the AUTHOR'S WAY

Goal

1. Look for a different way to explain why office workers have a higher rate of lower back injuries than people who do stressful back labor. or 2. A way to undermine the idea that office furniture is causing lower back injuries or 3. A way to argue that offices might be worse for workers' lower backs but still better when it comes to overall health.

22.

Which one of the following, if true, most undermines the reasoning above?

  1. When they are at home,

    Strengthens (mildly)

    When we're looking for potential differences (causal difference-makers) between two groups, any sort of fact we get that controls for some other variable and makes them fair to compare actually strengthens the argument, by ruling out some form of alternate explanation.

    12% picked this

  2. Insurance companies tend to dislike

    No Impact

    What insurance companies like / dislike is super far removed from our job of assessing this Causal Mystery of why office workers have a higher rate of lower back injuries.

    2% picked this

  3. People who regularly do physical

    Too Weak

    This almost provides an alternate explanation for the curious fact. Why do office workers have a higher rate of lower back injuries than people who do back-stressing physical labor? It's not because the crappy office furniture causes more back injuries. It's because people who have back-stressing jobs are encouraged to use techniques that reduce the stress. However, the fact that they're encouraged to use techniques that reduce stress is too weak. We don't know whether these workers actually DO use these techniques. And even if they do use the techniques, a reduced amount of stress on the lower back might still be more stress than office workers endure, so it wouldn't change the overall scenario of the argument much.

    45% picked this

  4. Most of the lower-back injuries

    Strengthens

    This helps the plausibility of the author's causal story, which blames the back injuries on office furniture and equipment.

    3% picked this

  5. Correct

    Consistent physical exercise is one

    Why this is right

    This almost provides an alternate explanation for the curious fact. Why do office workers have a higher rate of lower back injuries than people who do back-stressing physical labor? It's not because the crappy office furniture causes more back injuries. It's because "regularly doing physical work that places heavy stresses" constitutes "consistent physical exercise", which is one of the most effective ways to prevent a back injury from occurring or to recover from one that does occur. In other words, the disparity in back injuries between office workers and physical laborers isn't because office work does something bad for the back, but rather because physical work does something good for the back.

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

    38% picked this

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