WeakenDiff: Medium

Logic Breakdown

Passage Summary: Researchers found that female doctors who ate more B6 and folate were less likely to get heart disease, so they think the vitamins are the cause of the health benefit.

Conclusion: Folate and B6 vitamins help prevent heart disease in women.

Reasoning: A study found that women who consumed more folate and B6 had lower rates of coronary disease.

Analysis: This is a classic correlation-to-causation leap. Just because two things happen together doesn't mean one causes the other. To weaken this, look for an answer that provides an alternative explanation—perhaps women who take vitamins also exercise more or have better overall diets. Alternatively, maybe heart disease somehow leads to lower vitamin levels, reversing the direction of cause and effect.

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9.

Which one of the following would, if true, most weaken the researchers' conclusion?

Correct Answer
A
By pointing out that foods high in folate and B6 also contain other nonvitamin nutrients that inhibit heart disease, A offers a clear confounder. The observed inverse relationship could be driven by those other nutrients, not by folate/B6, undercutting the causal conclusion that these vitamins inhibit heart disease.
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