An association between two types of conditions

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

(B) Principle

Be clear about whether you are being asked to apply
a specific situation to a general principle or vice
versa.
In this case, the question stem indicates that the
general principle will be found in the stimulus, and we
are to find the choice that most closely conforms to it.
The stimulus sounds a lot like a warning against logical
flaws (which is good advice to LSAT test takers). In
essence, the stimulus tells us that evidence of a
correlation between two conditions or phenomena
doesn’t always mean that one has to cause the other.
Even a persistent correlation is probably due to both
phenomena having a common cause. Let’s keep an
eye out for an answer choice that gives us two strongly
correlated conditions with evidence that they are both
effects of the same cause.

(A) says that the two correlated phenomena (inflation
and growth of the money supply) are actually one and
the same. This isn’t the same as the principle in the
stimulus.

(B) considers the strong correlation between having
high blood pressure and being overweight, but cautions
us against applying a claim of causation. Instead, (B)
says, both of these conditions are likely the results of
a common cause, unhealthy living. This conforms to
the principle in every way, and has to be our match.

(C) suggests that the correlation between two things is
coincidental, not that they share a common cause.

(D) cautions us against applying causality to the
correlation between clothing color and overall mood,
but not because there’s probably a third factor that
influences both. (D) just says that we can’t be sure
which of the two correlated factors causes the other.

(E) starts off great, giving us the “common cause”
element we’re looking for. But then it veers off track by
undermining the common cause and saying that Latin
and Greek are probably so similar because they
borrowed from each other.