Q3 - People with high blood pressure

by **demetri.blaisdell** Sat Apr 28, 2012 11:10 am

The LSAT seems to really like writing about blood pressure. This is a flaw question that gets at the oldest flaw in the book: correlation/causation.

Argument core:

People with high blood pressure are more nervous and anxious ---> Nervousness and anxiety (i.e. hypertension) causes high blood pressure

Alarm bells should sound any time you go from correlation to causation on the LSAT (maybe in real life, also). (D) states the flaw. Correlation simply doesn't prove causation. You might think of it as: couldn't something else cause both?

Wrong answer graveyard:

(A) is neither true nor relevant. They did define hypertensive personality. It's the combination of those personality traits.

(B) isn't in the argument. It makes sense that you would want to have permanent (or at least long-lasting) personality traits to make this work. But it might not be a flaw to assume this and it's definitely not the worst thing about this argument.

(C) is wrong. The argument might state (but doesn't restate) the claim that there is a hypertensive personality. But the flaw here is causation, not the claim that there is such a thing as hypertension.

(E) is out of scope. The premise and the conclusion both deal with nervousness and anxiety. Other personality traits are irrelevant to the argument (so they can't be the flaw).

I hope this helps. If you still have questions after reading this, post away!

Demetri