LR Question 20 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: There is strong evidence that the cause of migraines…
QUESTION TYPE: Paradox
PARADOX: The cause of migraines is physical yet people receiving treatment for them have more anxiety than others.
ANALYSIS: There’s strong evidence that migraines are caused by physical factors, not mental ones. But studies have found that people being professionally treated for migraines have higher anxiety than those who do not? These studies in the second sentence seem to suggest that anxiety plays a role in causing migraines, but sentence 1 tells us this can’t be the case.
The correct answer resolves this. People with anxiety are more likely to seek treatment for their migraines. So they skew the statistics. Many people without anxiety just stay at home, and don’t get reported as having migraines.
___________
- This doesn’t tell us why people being treated for migraines tend to be psychologically anxious.
- This doesn’t tell us what causes migraines. It only shows a correlation between emotional stress and migraines.
- CORRECT. People with anxiety skew the statistics. They are more likely to seek treatment, and so their cases of migraines are over-reported. This falsely makes it look like people with anxiety are more likely to get migraines.
- This tells us that the press likes the idea that migraines have a psychological cause, and they publicize those studies. But this doesn’t tell us what actually does cause migraines.
- This just tells us a fact about migraine treatment. It doesn’t change anything, or tell us about causes.
Recap: The question begins with “There is strong evidence that the cause of migraines”. It is a Paradox question. Learn more about LSAT Paradox questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.
More Resources for Paradox Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Paradox questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers paradox questions.
I still disagree with the analysis and explanation.
You say “people with anxiety are more likely to seek treatment for their migraines,” but the stimulus really says “people who seek treatment for migraines are more likely to have anxiety.” You assume migraine sufferers who do not seek professional treatment have not also been polled/studied and therefore have not reported their migraines. In other words, you assume the two groups being compared are 1) migraine sufferers seeking professional treatment and 2) anyone not seeking professional treatment who may or may not report their migraines.
But in my understanding, the stimulus implies that two groups being compared are 1) known/reported migraine sufferers that are seeking professional treatment, and 2) known/reported migraine sufferers who are not seeking professional treatment. It implies that group 2 HAVE also been polled/studied, and have also reported their migraines (more/less, doesn’t matter), and that the results simply show that those migraine sufferers who also seek professional treatment have higher anxiety.
Therefore, your explanation for C being correct, that those who don’t have anxiety and don’t seek professional treatment underreport their migraines, is the wrong explanation.
I believe the correct explanation would be something like, “The data only implies that those with higher anxiety have more/worse migraines if you mistakenly conclude that it points to a causal relationship between anxiety and migraines, when it really only points to a causal relationship between anxiety and seeking professional treatment.
I meant underreporting loosely. There is no central authority to whom one reports if they have a migraine. In practice any statistics on the incidence of migraines generally comes from medical reports, so “reporting” a migraine is effectively the same thing as telling a medical professional “I have a migraine”. This sort of language is common as far as I know in medical discussions.
It’s possible I missed your meaning, if so please let me know. I meant underreporting to be the same thing as less likely to seek help.
I believe your analysis/paradox section is incorrect, and therefore your explanations are as well.
Your analysis implies that because those with anxiety are more likely to get professional treatment, they are more likely to report their migraines vs. those without anxiety (who don’t report their migraines even if they have them at the same rate), therefore skewing the data to appear that those with anxiety have more migraines.
But the prompt is not saying that the data is skewed to show that those with anxiety have more migraines. It is saying that the study compared some group of people (it does not even address which group has more or less migraines; for all we know, there could be any relationship), and those that sought professional treatment for migraines had higher anxiety than those that did not seek professional treatment for migraines.
The paradox is that “if migraines are purely physiological, why do those those who seek professional treatment for migraines (could imply they have more frequent/more intense migraines, but does not necessitate it) have higher anxiety than those who don’t?” This is opposed to the paradox you provide, which is that people with anxiety are more likely to have migraines. This does not have to be true given the prompt, and in fact is directly refuted by the prompt: “there is strong evidence that the cause of migraines are purely physiological.” Your analysis claiming that “it’s well known that stress can lead to both health problems (e.g. migraines) and psychological anxiety,” is in direct opposition to the prompt (which we assume is true).
The explanation for why answer C is correct, therefore, is not that underreporting skews the data of number of migraines in people with anxiety vs. those without, but that people with anxiety are more likely to seek professional treatment vs. those without anxiety, which makes it appear that those who seek professional help (and possibly have more/worse migraines) have more anxiety than those who do not seek professional help. Instead of “this falsely makes it look like people with anxiety are more likely to get migraines,” the explanation should be “this falsely makes it look like people who seek professional treatment for migraines are more likely to have anxiety (which could provide evidence that migraines are caused by psychological factors).”
It’s a small difference, but if the prompt is interpreted correctly, I believe your explanation for the answer is not totally accurate.
Hi! I agree that the original explanation missed some of the nuances, so I’ve updated it.
However, I do think the original explanation for C (which I did not edit) still gets it right – the second sentence does indeed seem to suggest that anxiety is a causal factor in migraines which is the exact paradox we’re resolving (because we know that the cause has to be physiological, not psychological).
But take a look at the new explanation, and let me know if there’s anything you still disagree with, and I’d be happy to discuss further!