PT68.S2.Q24 - studies have found that human tears

jane1010

http://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-68-section-2-question-24/

i'm having difficulty with the following question:

ID THE FLAW: "studies have found that human tears...[redacted]"

CORRECT answer: argument "takes for granted that because certain substances are present...[redacted]"

i can understand why the correct answer is correct by breaking down the argument:
P1: tears have hormones
P2: stress has hormones
conc: so shedding tears must reduce stress.
assumption: hormones CAUSE stress. this is why the author is saying that ~Hormone --> ~Stress


my WRONG answer: argument "overlooks the possibility that if crying has...[redacted]"

but even though i can understand why the correct answer is right i'm having a hard time articulating why my answer (above) is wrong. i thought that the answer was touching upon the idea that there is a correlation, not causation (i.e., if stress is reduced when we cry, this may be because something other than crying causes stress levels to decrease -- so the effect is just a coincidence, not a true causation). could you please help?

thanks, as always!

ONuellaO

The main error in the argument is that the author is assuming a causation. I understood that answer choice as wrong because it starts with "if crying has a tendency to reduce stress....". We cannot even assume that. If we did, we would be committing a causation flaw (one that we are trying to look for in the first place)

Hope this helps