High cholesterol levels are highly correlated with cardiovascular disease. ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ███ ████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████████████ ████████
Generally speaking, high cholesterol and heart disease are correlated with one another. But these Limonians are different – they have one but not the other. Why?
Here we’re anticipating something special about Limonians that lets them 1) have high cholesterol without 2) having heart disease.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███████
Persons who come ████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ █████ █████████ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ██████████████ ████████
This would be relevant if we knew the Limonians came from longevity-enjoying families. But we don’t! We know they’ve had high cholesterol for many years, but that’s different from having above-average life expectancy.
The stress and █████████ █████ ██ █████ ██████ ██████████ ████████ ██████████████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████
If Limonians did in fact have heart disease, (B) would explain why their heart disease isn’t very severe. But Limonians don’t have heart disease at all.
There’s relative v. absolute stuff going on here. Our stimulus is concerned with heart disease as a binary – you have it or you don’t. We’re trying to explain why Limonians don’t have it.
(B) treats heart disease like a spectrum – it acts as though there’s an important difference between having severe heart disease and having mild heart disease. That whole conceptual framework clashes with the stimulus.
The residents of ██████ ████ ██████ █████ █████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ █████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ██████████████ ███████ ██ █ ████ ███████████ ██████
(C) is one of those 🤦 wrong answers. “Very low blood sugar levels prevent heart disease” is awesome and completely on point. But Limonians have normal blood sugar levels, so this doesn’t apply to them.
The residents of ██████ █████████ ████ ██████ █████████ █ █████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████████ █████████ █████ ██ █ █████ ██ ██████████████ ████████
This provides a mechanism by which Limonians can have high cholesterol without having heart disease – because they’ve got this gene that separately counteracts a cause of heart disease, they’re just less susceptible to heart disease in general.
Olive oil is █ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ █ █████████████ ████ ███ █████████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████████████ ████████
This would be relevant if we knew the Limonians in particular used a ton of olive oil and everyone else used a ton of butter, but we lack that specific information.
Answer five questions and we'll estimate your score.
It takes about five minutes.
Take the free diagnostic