If a geneticist selects any arbitrary group of people for

Question

If a geneticist selects any arbitrary group of people—for instance, those who enjoy watching football games—and examines them closely enough, he or she may well find a genetic marker common to all of them. But that shared marker need not have anything to do with the fact that they all like football.

The consideration above can best serve as part of an argument against the view that

1]An individual's personality is more likely to be determined by the environment in which he grew up than by his or her genetic makeup.
2]The discovery that alcoholics share a common gene establishes that alcoholism is genetically determined.
3]Certain personality traits are determined neither by environment nor by heredity, but by some unknown third element.
4]Since genetic makeup may determine how one responds to one's environment, scientists cannot assume that heredity plays no role in personality development.
5]Certain personality traits can be reinforced by spending time with others who share that personality trait.

aditi1903 · Accepted Answer

the argument basically supports the conclusion that hereditary is not responsible for the people's interest in football...and the question asks us which of the options are weakening the assumption.

thus, we need to proove that hereditary is one of the factors responsible for it.

now options

1/An individual's personality is more likely to be determined by the environment in which he grew up than by his or her genetic makeup.  ---where are we talking about environment in the whole passage? this strengthens the conclusion. 
2/The discovery that alcoholics share a common gene establishes that alcoholism is genetically determined. ---may be...keep it intact. 
3/Certain personality traits are determined neither by environment nor by heredity, but by some unknown third element. --- shows that there are other things than hereditary which are responsible for the common interests.but doesnt prves that hereditary is responsible.--chuck it out.  
4/Since genetic makeup may determine how one responds to one's environment, scientists cannot assume that heredity plays no role in personality development.  --- strenghthens it--out 
5/Certain personality traits can be reinforced by spending time with others who share that personality trait.  --- environment is responsible..so chuck it..!!

IMO B...wats the OA?

thebigr002 · Answer

Here, we're stating that the shared genetics of an arbitrary group are not an indication about the traits that they may share. Thus, assuming the above statement to be true, we need to find an answer choice that could be weakened by it. (seems sort of reverse weaken question. :wink:

) anyways, finding links between "group of people", "shared genetics / common genes" and "common traits", IMO, the above conclusion weakens option B.

MacFauz · Answer

B for me too..

Argument says Similar genes not necessarily reason for liking football.

Could be used effectively against an argument which says that people who share an activity and gene structure do so because the activity has something to do with the gene structure.

sanjoo · Answer

its B..

this is best against option B...comon gene leads conclusion to alcoholism is genetically determined.. bt author is saying agains that..not all genetically same ppl will like football

dentobizz · Answer

Bumping for review and further discussion*.

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cssk · Answer

Convinced with the answer choice B. But can someone explain why choice D is wrong? It also talks about genetic relation in personality development.

KyleWiddison · Answer

Good question. Let’s take a quick look at the potential arguments with weakening statements for both B and D.

Argument B
Genetic link found for alcoholics - therefore alcoholism is genetically caused

Weakening (from stem)
Any group can be linked genetically even though the marker may have no relevance

Argument D
Genes may determine environmental responses, therefore scientists can’t say that heredity doesn’t impact personality

Weakening (from stem)
Any group can be linked genetically even though the marker may have no relevance

Even though the statement from the stem does work against the Argument, the connection isn’t very strong. The potential argument is so broad and the weakening statement provides a very specific counterpoint. With the argument stating that scientists can’t rule out genetics when thinking about personality, providing a counterpoint about genetic links for football watchers would not give scientists license to ignore heredity impacts on personality.

This is a good example of what happens with CR answer choices. You will often find 2 relevant answer choices and you have to determine which one is best (the question states: The consideration above can BEST serve…).

KW

pramendrapandeya · Answer

Good question

Conclusion :-But that shared marker need not have anything to do with the fact that they all like football. to weaken this we need to prove shared marker plays some roll in determining characteristics, B says,"The discovery that alcoholics share a common gene establishes that alcoholism is genetically determined." (weakening the conclusion) So correct!! Hope that helps

alexkozhura · Answer

I would rephrase the sentence "If a geneticist selects any arbitrary group of people—for instance, those who enjoy watching football games—and examines them closely enough, he or she may well find a genetic marker common to all of them"

as

"if you look at people who love watching football, you will discover that they all have one head. Therefore, having one head makes you love football."

Option B follows the same silly way of reasoning.

If the argument stated that scientists have discovered a gene that all alcoholics have and that  all non-alcoholics don't have , then it would be an extremely compelling argument. But it doesn't do that.

shivam7 · Answer

B is the answer as it draws a direct connection with the paragraph. A is true but that does not mean that B is also true. So in option B, Alocholics may have common genes but that does not mean that people only with that kinds of genes become alcoholic.

VerbalBot · Answer

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If a geneticist selects any arbitrary group of people for

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If a geneticist selects any arbitrary group of people for

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