LSAT 103 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q12

LR Question 12 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: The higher the average fat intake among the residents…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: You’ll get less cancer if you eat less fat.

REASONING: There’s a correlation between cancer and fat. Countries that eat more fat have more cancer, and vice-versa.

ANALYSIS: Correlation never proves anything. The countries with higher cancer rates (Western countries) also have more public libraries, and more education. Do those things cause cancer?

The right answer shows that fat eating countries also have another correlation with a second possible cause of cancer.

It’s a very poor way to weaken the argument, but then again the argument doesn’t need much weakening.

___________

1. This explains why fat intake differs, but it doesn’t tell us whether eating fat gives you cancer.
2. This doesn’t tell us much. Does wealth give you cancer?
3. This doesn’t contradict anything. Cancer might be a predominant cause of death in high fat countries, too. (note that incidence of cancer is different from death from cancer. You can get cancer and not die).
4. CORRECT. You’re allowed to use outside knowledge. Environmental pollution can cause cancer. So maybe it’s the pollution, and not the fat that’s the problem. Note that this only weakens the argument very slightly.
    
   Another way of looking at this answer choice is that it points out the absurdity of treating a correlation as evidence of a problem. Since we have multiple correlations between cancer and other things, how do we choose which one is the cause?
5. Of course. People’s diets are very different, even within the same country. But this doesn’t change the fact that average fat intake is high in some countries.

Recap: The question begins with “The higher the average fat intake among the residents”. It is a Weaken question. Learn more about LSAT Weaken questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.