Self-study
Medical researcher: Support A survey of more than 1 million adults found that there was a greater frequency of illness among people who regularly slept at least 8 hours a night than among people who slept significantly less. ████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████████ ███████ ████████
Summarize Argument
The researcher concludes that mild sleep deprivation is not unhealthy and probably strengthens the immune system. She supports this with a survey which found that people who sleep at least 8 hours a night are sick more often than people who sleep significantly less.
Identify and Describe Flaw
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of assuming that correlation proves causation. Here, the researcher points out a correlation between getting less sleep and getting sick less often, then concludes that sleep deprivation causes people to get sick less often. However, she ignores the possibility that another factor, like exercise or a healthy diet, might cause people to both need less sleep and to have a stronger immune system.
18.
The reasoning in the medical ████████████ ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████
a
fails to address ███ ███████████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ████ █████████
The researcher fails to address the possibility that the correlation between sleep deprivation and getting sick less often is due to another factor— like diet or exercise— that causally contributes to both.
b
fails to consider ████ ████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ███ ████ ██████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ██████████
The researcher never assumes that sleep deprivation is the only thing that prevents illness. Instead, she fails to consider that a given factor (sleep deprivation) might not causally contribute to the occurrence of a given phenomenon at all.
c
concludes, from the █████ ████ █ ███████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ███ █████ ████ █ ███████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ██████
The researcher concludes that sleep deprivation strengthens the immune system from the claim that the two are correlated. She does not conclude that sleep deprivation exists from the claim that it is sufficient for a strengthened immune system.
d
takes for granted ████ █████ ████ ██ ██ ██████████ ███████████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ █████████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████
Actually, the researcher takes for granted (or assumes) that one phenomenon causally contributes to the other since there is an observable correlation between the two phenomena.
e
fails to consider ████ ████ ██ █ ████████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ █ █████ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ███ ████ █████ ████████ ████████████
The researcher doesn't claim that sleep deprivation is not associated with illness, just that it's associated less frequently than sleeping 8 hours. She also never assumes that sleep deprivation has no other negative consequences.