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

lsatseverus

The conclusion here is that "crying must have the effect of reducing emotional stress".

The first time I read the stimulus I thought the flaw/gap here was; we are not sure that crying itself decreases stress, maybe the hormones causes the person to cry to reduce stress.

So I chose "C", because I assumed the answer choice stated: that the stimulus failed to address if the hormones led to decrease of stress by crying, or crying led to the decrease of stress by removing hormones.

Isn't that another legitimate flaw here?

I could see how "E" is right, how the argument confused that hormones might be the cause of the stress, rather than a response to stress...but that was way out of my radar.


How do I make sure I don't make these mistakes again?
https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-68-section-2-question-24

blah170blah

I think this depends on how you came to (C). Did you pick (C) because you incorrectly eliminated (E) for faulty reasons? Were you stuck between (C) and (E) and just chose (C) because it went more with your guy?

lsatseverus

@blah170blah

Hey thanks for responding. I chose "C" because I thought it matched the flaw here. I should have noticed the causation flaw between stress and hormones, but I thought the flaw in the conclusion between crying and hormones was the most prominent one. And I assumed, "C" matched with that. I was between "E" and "C", but again, the causation flaw between stress and hormones was marginalized by the causation flaw between hormones and crying so I eliminated "E".

blah170blah

I think a lesson that can be learned from this question is to be flexible in the flaw you choose. I think you attempted to conform answer choice (C) to your original hypothesis without legitimately being able to eliminate (E). In terms of the most significant causation, it's important to recognize that the crux of the argument relies on hormones because crying out stress-related hormones could lower stress only if the hormones cause stress. I think (C) is wrong precisely because it's focusing on the crying and the emotional stress without doing anything with the core assumption here, which is about hormones.