June 1996 LSAT Section 4 Question 8

Based on data collected from policyholders, life insurance companies have developed tables that list standard weight ...

AndrewArabie on October 10, 2022

C & D

I understand why E is correct. I chose it because it most clearly passed the negation test. But I can't see why C and D are wrong.

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Emil-Kunkin on October 12, 2022

Hi Andrew,

C does not have to be what the author believes. We know nothing about the causes of death, and this is not essential to the argument.

Same for D, If life insurance holders do tend to live longer I do not see what it does to the argument.

AndrewArabie on October 12, 2022

To me C and D both eliminate the possibility that this was a biased sample. A second look at C and I see that its irrelevant but D still looks good to me because if policy holders tend to live longer than non-policy holders there may be more factors at play than just weight. Granted, that wouldn't collapse the argument, it would just be another consideration.

Emil-Kunkin on October 19, 2022

I think your final point is the heart of it. Sure there might be some minor relevance, but we would have to add in our own assumptions p, and either way, it isn't a necessary assumption.