A birth is more likely to be difficult when the mother is over the age of 40 than when she is younger. Regardless of ...
Abigail-OkerekeOctober 27, 2022
I just don't get it.
I was able to eliminate answer choices c-e. I was stuck between a and b, ultimately choosing a. I was so sure the stimulus was circular because it seemed convoluted. Could someone help break this down simply for me and explain a vs b?
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Circularity is not the same thing as convolutedness. Circular arguments would be something where we say, the sky is blue, and since I see the blue sky, therefore the sky is blue.
Here, our author tells us that older means harder, and harder means more likely to be ambidextrous. The author notes there are no other relevant relationships between age and handedness, so they conclude the there must be more ambidextrous people born to mothers over 40 than under 40.
The authors conclusion is different from the premises. It is also wrong. You cannot conclude anything about absolute numbers from an increased likelihood. Maybe babies both to older moms are 50 percent more likely to be ambidextrous, but there are 1000 times more babies born to moms under 40 than over. In this case, there would be way more babies born to younger moms than to over 40s. This is exactly what B is saying,
