Doctors in Britain have long suspected that patients who wear tinted eyeglasses are abnormally prone to depression and hypochondria. █████████████ █████ █████ █████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ████████ █████████ ████ █ █████████████ ███████ ██████ █████ ████████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████████████ ███████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████ ████████████ █████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ ██ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ███ █ ████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ████████████████
Weaken EXCEPT stimuli tend to feature a ton of flaws because the testwriters need room for 4 wrong answers that each make a legitimate attack on the argument. You should therefore read the stimulus looking to spot as many issues as you can, then roll into the answer choices expecting them to reveal some new angles of attack you didn’t notice at first. In this question, it turns out the main themes that govern the answer choices are causation and overgeneralization:
Premise: [Sunglass-wearers in British hospitals who were admitted for physical complaints like heart pain] are more likely to be depressed / hypochondriacal.
________
Conclusion: Sunglass-wearing across time and space is always caused by depression / hypochondria.
Spotting the correlation =/= causation angle of attack is straightforward. This argument fits the classic phenomenon hypothesis pattern, drawing a specific causal conclusion from data that’s merely correlative.
But we can also attack the stimulus from an overgeneralization perspective – it takes data that shows a correlation within a ridiculously narrow scope (sunglass-wearers in British hospitals who were admitted for physical complaints like heart pain) and makes an absurdly strong categorical claim about all the sunglass-wearers in the universe.
Analysis by MichaelWright
Each of the following, if █████ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████
Some people wear ██████ ███████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ███ ███████ █ ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ██ ███
Even a depressed ██ ███████████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ███████ ███████████ ██ █ ██████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ █████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████████
The confirmatory tests ████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ███████ █████ ███████ █████ ███ █████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████
Fashions with respect ██ ███████ ██████ ███████ ██████ ██ █████████ █████ ██ ███ ██████
At the hospitals █████ ███ █████ ████ ██████ ████████ ███ ████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████████ ████ █████ ████ ██ █████████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████████