Q16 - Stress is a common cause of high blood pressure

[mshinners]

Question Type:
Inference (Most Strongly Supported)

Stimulus Breakdown:
Exercise can cause a calm mind can cause less stress can lower blood pressure.

Answer Anticipation:
I rephrased the stimulus to reflect the causal chain that can be developed from this stimulus. Some combination of the above will serve as the answer, so I'd want to head into the choices with the whole chain.

Correct answer:
(E)

Answer choice analysis:
(A) Reversal. The stimulus sets up less stress as a cause of lower blood pressure, not the other way around.

(B) Degree. The stimulus states this is true for some people, not most of those with high blood pressure as this answer choice claims.

(C) Degree/Exclusive list. "Most" is too strong based on the information. Also, while exercise can lower stress, the stimulus doesn't rule out other methods of achieving the same result, so we can't infer that those who don't exercise have higher stress - they may lower their stress with some fine Chianti while taking a bath and listening to Michael Bolton.

(D) Degree/term shift. The stimulus allows us to infer that exercise can indirectly lower BP, but since there are intervening steps (calming mind, lowering stress), we can't infer that it directly causes this effect.

(E) Bingo. This answer doesn't include our entire chain (which would mention lower blood pressure), but it does follow from our causal chain.

Takeaway/Pattern:
When there is a causal (or conditional) chain, get the whole thing written out. The correct answer in an Inference question doesn't have to include the entire chain.

#officialexplanation

[abrenza123]

I understand why E is correct without diagramming, but would you be able to diagram the second and third sentences w/ some and most like this:

Engaging exercise -m-> Calm mind -cause-> reduce stress

since most implies some, for at least some people, exercise causes decrease in stress levels.

Also for future, with sentences, "by....thereby" implies causation, correct?

[ohthatpatrick]

Yes, all that seemed right on!

INFERENCE is known to test two main things:
- conditional logic (chains of conditionals / applying a conditional to a fact)
- causality (chains of causality / causal difference-makers)

More rarely, it'll test
- quantitative stuff (including quantity overlap inferences)
- comparison/contrast stuff

There are several things here indicating causality:
1st: "X is a common cause of Y"
2nd: "By doing Z, you thereby get less X, and for some people that can mean less Y."
3rd: "By engaging in W, most people get Z."

[LoganS285]

I think (D) is incorrect not only because it says that engaging in exercise can directly (rather than indirectly) lower one's blood pressure, but also because the stimulus doesn't allow us to infer that engaging in exercise can lower blood pressure at all. We know that most people can calm their minds by engaging in exercise, and we know that some people can lower their blood pressure by calming their minds, but these could be non-overlapping groups. Perhaps the only people who can lower their blood pressure by calming their minds are those who cannot calm their minds by engaging in exercise.