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Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment out

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prude_sb
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Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment out [#permalink] New post   25 Apr 2006, 19:58
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Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment outweighs heredity in personality development, twins raised together should presumably have more similar personalities than those raised apart. A recent study of identical twins in both situations measured 11 key traits through a questionnaire, and concluded that 7 of the 11 are primarily products of heredity.

Which of the following, if established, would cast the most doubt on the study's results?


(A) Fewer than half of the pairs of twins studied were raised separately.

(B) The ages of all of the twins studied fell within a 10-year range.

(C) Some of the traits that the study attributed to heredity developed in the separately raised twins because those pairs all grew up in similar families.

(D) Although over half the traits measured were determined to be linked to heredity, the nature of those traits varied widely.

(E) The 11 traits that were measured constitute a representative sample of larger, generally accepted pool of key personality traits.
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Re: Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment out [#permalink] New post   15 Aug 2013, 13:05
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Which of the following, if established, would cast the most doubt on the study's results?

(A) Fewer than half of the pairs of twins studied were raised separately. Shell game. This is the attractive answer because it seems to detract from the study, as selection bias does. However, whether or not the number between groups in the study were equal, the percentage of traits would be the same.

(B) The ages of all of the twins studied fell within a 10-year range.Out of scope. Range should not affect the result.

(C) Some of the traits that the study attributed to heredity developed in the separately raised twins because those pairs all grew up in similar families. Very tricky because one has to read carefully; study attributed traits as heredity when in fact the twins also grew up in similar families, but there is no way to prove if it was hereditary or environmental; also, "some" is a soft answer choice

(D) Although over half the traits measured were determined to be linked to heredity, the nature of those traits varied widely. The nature or genesis of the traits is out of scope because this question is about environment vs. heredity

(E) The 11 traits that were measured constitute a representative sample of larger, generally accepted pool of key personality traits. This seems like a fallacy of composition in that smaller parts can be described by the whole. At least this does not affect the conclusion because we don't know anything about the larger pool of key personality traits. In brief, out of scope.
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Re: Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment out [#permalink] New post   11 Dec 2013, 01:14
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(A) Fewer than half of the pairs of twins studied were raised separately.

Choice A is actually a trap. It says that fewer than half of the pairs were raised seperately or majority of the pairs were raised together. Despite that, the conclusion could still be true since it is not mentioned whether those twins who were raised together were raised in the same environment. They could have grown up together but in different families that have different environments. Hence this choice cannot weaken the argument.

(C) Some of the traits that the study attributed to heredity developed in the separately raised twins because those pairs all grew up in similar families.

Choice C emphasises on the possible gap present in the argument - "environment can outweigh heredity". If some (atleast more than one out of 7) of the traits that the study attributed to heredity developed in the separately raised twins because those pairs all grew up in similar families, then majority of the traits cannot be attributed to heredity. Thus C is the best suitable answer choice.

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Re: Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment out [#permalink] New post   25 Apr 2006, 20:06
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Definitely C.

Study's results show that 7 traits are related to heridity and not the environment in which the twins were raised.
C directly weakens this argument by stating that some of the traits related to heredity developed b'coz twins were bought up in similar families, thus reinforcing that environment outweighs heredity.
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Re: Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment out [#permalink] New post   26 Apr 2006, 01:35
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Go with C.
The question here is if "environment outweighs heredity".
C says environments are pretty much same. This goes against the conclusion.
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Re: Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment out [#permalink] New post   19 Aug 2010, 09:05
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Conclusion --> twins are similar because of heredity.

C weakens the conclusion by showing that the key traits that were attributed to heredity were actually because of the environment.
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Re: Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment out [#permalink] New post   07 Feb 2016, 10:25
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prude_sb wrote:
Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment outweighs heredity in personality development, twins raised together should presumably have more similar personalities than those raised apart. A recent study of identical twins in both situations measured 11 key traits through a questionnaire, and concluded that 7 of the 11 are primarily products of heredity.

Which of the following, if established, would cast the most doubt on the study's results?

(A) Fewer than half of the pairs of twins studied were raised separately.
(B) The ages of all of the twins studied fell within a 10-year range.
(C) Some of the traits that the study attributed to heredity developed in the separately raised twins because those pairs all grew up in similar families.
(D) Although over half the traits measured were determined to be linked to heredity, the nature of those traits varied widely.
(E) The 11 traits that were measured constitute a representative sample of larger, generally accepted pool of key personality traits.



to weaken the conclusion, we must attack the argument by mentioning smth that:
1. either the twins, who were tested, were raised in similar conditions.
2. there is no way exact way to differentiate between environment and heredity.

A - fewer than half were raised separately. this, in contrary, supports the conclusion.
B - the ages of the twins is out of scope.
C - aha! so this basically tells that the twins were raised separately, but the conditions were similar.
D - nature of the traits is out of scope.
E - how many key personality traits are there - out of scope.

C looks good for me.
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Re: Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment out [#permalink] New post   13 Mar 2020, 13:59
Could someone please elaborate on why "B" is out of scope?

Saying that the people selected was not random....they only selected twins who were 80 years old...they only selected twins that loved basketball...they only selected twins that were in elementary school....would this not suggest the similarity in age could account for the similarity in character traits? TY
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Re: Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment out [#permalink] New post   08 Jul 2023, 11:59
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Re: Identical twins tend to have similar personalities; if environment out [#permalink]
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