PT85.S3.Q22 - Insurers and doctors are well aware

CantStopWontStop

Completely lost on this question. Any explanations would be much appreciated.

Admin note: edited title

msk12345

I'll go through both ways: why E is right and why A-D are wrong.

Why E is right:

Premise: Medical professionals are aware that lower back injuries are much higher among office workers who spend all day sitting at their desk (i.e. investment banking analysts) than among workers who regularly do physical work that places stress on their back (i.e. coal miners or something like that).

Conclusion: Office equipment is not properly designed for workers' health.

This is an interesting weakening question, because the argument is making a huge, gaping assumption. In that way, the thinking is almost like a necessary assumption. Implicitly, we are assuming that doing coal mining is bad for your back (at least, worse than working all day hunched over a computer like a sad investment banking analyst; I was an analyst so I feel like I can say that). Any time that the LSAT makes relative comparisons between two groups like this, it always raises alarms for me. A lot of times they are hoping you will assume A is bad (i.e. sitting at desk) as opposed to thinking B is good (i.e. coal mining). This is a tricky question because it runs counter to our standard assumptions as well as personal experiences.

If this were a necessary assumption question, the right answer would be something like "Regularly performing physical work that places stress on your back increases the likelihood of lower back injuries."

Anyway, that's what E is saying. "Consistent physical exercise is one of the best ways to prevent back injuries." And that totally completely wrecks the argument. As opposed to sitting all day in an uncomfortable plastic chair under neon lights being bad for your back, the coal miners just work in a profession that is really good for their backs. Maybe neither group has bad back problems. The coal miners just have like 1/1000 with back problems and the analysts just have 1/999 with back problems.

Why A - D are wrong:

A: Spend the same amount of time at home sitting? If anything, I think this strengthens the argument. Before, a potential reason other than the office equipment being bad could have been that the office workers are so stressed after work they spend all night doing squats or something bad for their back after work while the coal miners iced the backs and watched tv. This takes that away.

B: Insurance companies tend to dislike... Who cares?

C: Coal miners are encouraged to use techniques to reduce the stress involved. This is a kind of tricky one, but wrong for two reasons. First, and the biggest thing, is that they are just encouraged to use these techniques. We don't know if they're actually doing it. People encourage me to drink less coffee but I still drink 5 cups a day (joking, kind of). Second, do these techniques work? My neighbor has a technique he tells me about every other day for losing weight, but I am not seeing a lot of progress on that front.

D : Most of the lower back injuries for office workers happen on the job? Like they are pulling their back while playing around in excel and watching youtube videos? Wouldn't this strengthen the argument? It either strengthens it or is irrelevant.

CantStopWontStop

First off, thank you for your thoughtful answer. I really appreciate it.

With answer E, it states that “consistent physical excercise is one of the most effective ways to prevent or recover from lower back injury.” Am is to assume that people who regularly do physical work are getting “consistent physical excercise” from their job. It just seems like if I were moving boxes all day with bad form, the consistent excercise of the job wouldn’t mitigate the incredible stressed put on one’s back.

msk12345

Yes, you do need to assume that the people regularly doing physical work are getting exercise from it.

Regarding your last point:

1) This is a weaken question so all of the answer choices are true. Like I said, one of the tricky things about this question is that it runs counter to some of our assumptions about the world. But that doesn't matter. For our purposes, consistent physical exercise is one of the most effective ways to prevent or recover from lower back injuries..

2) You just need to weaken the argument. That's happening with E. Exercise may not completely mitigate the other effects of the physical work, but it is one of the most effective ways to prevent or recover from lower back injuries. So, group B has this factor that group A doesn't which could be potentially explaining why Group B has fewer injuries than group A. That makes it less likely that the office chairs are a factor. And that's all you need.