It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young adults

Question

It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young adults live longer than those who never marry. This does not show that marriage causes people to live longer, since, as compared with other people of the same age, young adults who are about to get married have fewer of the unhealthy habits that can cause a person to have a shorter life, most notably smoking and immoderate drinking of alcohol.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?

(A) Marriage tends to cause people to engage less regularly in sports that involve risk of bodily harm.

(B) A married person who has an unhealthy habit is more likely to give up that habit than a person with the same habit who is unmarried.

(C) A person who smokes is much more likely than a nonsmoker to marry a person who smokes at the time of marriage, and the same is true for people who drink alcohol immoderately.

(D) Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give up an unhealthy habit after marriage do not resume the habit later in life.

(E) Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke, those who never marry live as long as those who marry.

KarishmaB · Accepted Answer

Premises:   
Those who marry as young adults live longer than those who don't marry.
Young adults about to get married (not married already so marriage not responsible) have fewer unhealthy habits.

Conclusion:   Marriage doesn't give you longer life, fewer unhealthy habits does.

We need to strengthen the conclusion.

(A) Marriage tends to cause people to engage less regularly in sports that involve risk of bodily harm.

Marriage makes people safer. Doesn't help our argument.

(B) A married person who has an unhealthy habit is more likely to give up that habit than a person with the same habit who is unmarried.

Marriage causes a person to have a healthier life. Doesn't help our argument.

(C) A person who smokes is much more likely than a nonsmoker to marry a person who smokes at the time of marriage, and the same is true for people who drink alcohol immoderately.

Irrelevant. In short, this option tells us that smokers marry smokers and drinkers marry drinkers. It doesn't matter who a person marries. 
We are given a premise that  "as compared with other people of the same age, young adults who are about to get married have fewer of the unhealthy habits that can cause a person to have a shorter life" 
 Those about to get married have fewer bad habits. Whether their partner has the same habits or not, is irrelevant. The fact is that those about to get married have fewer bad habits.

(D) Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give up an unhealthy habit after marriage do not resume the habit later in life.

We don't know how married people who give up compare with unmarried people who give up. We don't know whether unmarried people resume bad habits later in life after giving them up once.
If marriage causes people to give up and not resume, marriage is responsible for healthier life.
Doesn't strengthen our case.

(E) Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke, those who never marry live as long as those who marry.

Exactly. Tells us that marriage or no marriage has no impact on longevity. Those who don't have bad habits live longer than those who have bad habits.

Answer (E)

manojkumarmatala · Answer

It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young adults live longer than those who never marry. This does not show that marriage causes people to live longer, since, as compared with other people of the same age, young adults who are about to get married have fewer of the unhealthy habits that can cause a person to have a shorter life, most notably smoking and immoderate drinking of alcohol.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?

(A) Marriage tends to cause people to engage less regularly in sports that involve risk of bodily harm.

(B) A married person who has an unhealthy habit is more likely to give up that habit than a person with the same habit who is unmarried.

(C) A person who smokes is much more likely than a nonsmoker to marry a person who smokes at the time of marriage, and the same is true for people who drink alcohol immoderately.

(D) Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give up an unhealthy habit after marriage do not resume the habit later in life.

(E) Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke, those who never marry live as long as those who marry.

The Official Guide for GMAT Review 13th Edition, 2012

Practice Question
Question No.: CR 118

Who marries whom is obviously out of scope D. Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give up an unhealthy habit after marriage do not resume the habit later in life. - This is the most tricky answer. We can assume that people end up giving up unhealthy habit after marriage mostly because of the pressure from spouse and thus this is also saying that marriage is responsible for the increase life expectancy. Has it been an inference question we can not assume this cause and effect . But, here we can safely eliminate this. E. Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke, those who never marry live as long as those who marry. Bingo. .!. I don't drink alchol or smoke, and so as my friend. We both hit a century. Only difference is he married and died unlike me. Thus, marriage is NOT the reason for increased life expectancy and thus strengthens the conclusion that marriage doesn't impact your life expectancy. (in real world it is likely to reduce

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gmatmba · Answer

It is clearly E

The argument is saying that those who marry young tend to live longer,  NOT   because they are marrie d,  BUT   because they tend to not have unhealthy habits . 

E strengthens the argument saying that among young people, those who do not have unhealthy habits but  DO NOT  marry live as long as the ones that  DO  marry.

jaynayak · Answer

Will go with E.

The argument is that marriage has nothing to do with people living longer.
To strengthen the argument we need to show something simmilar.

E does that.

The author argues that studies have found young people marrying earlier to live a longer live.
And E says that a young person with similar habits to another yougn man gettign married has the same chance of living longer as the person marrying. Hence marriage is not a factor in their longer lives.

TarunTilokani · Answer

THIS A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT STRENGTHEN ARGUMENT

FEW TIPS BEFORE WE ANALYSE THE ARGUMENT :

A.  Eliminate any alternate causes for the stated effect 
Because the author believes there is only one cause (the stated cause in the argument), eliminating other possible causes strengthens the conclusion.

B.  Show that when the cause occurs, the effect occurs 
Because the author believes that the cause always produces the effect, any scenario where the cause occurs and the effect follows lends credibility to the conclusion.This type of answer can appear in the form of an example.

C.  Show that when the cause does not occur, the effect does not occur 
Using the reasoning in the previous point, any scenario where the cause does not occur and the effect does not occur supports the conclusion. This type of answer also can appear in the form of an example.

D.  Eliminate the possibility that the stated relationship is reversed 
Because the author believes that the cause and effect relationship is correctly stated, eliminating the possibility that the relationship is backwards (the claimed effect is actually the cause of the claimed cause) strengthens the conclusion.

E.  Show that the data used to make the causal statement are accurate, or eliminate possible problems with the data 
If the data used to make a causal statement are in error, then the validity of the causal claim is in question. Any information that eliminates error or reduces the possibility of error will support the argument.

As per the argument

Marriage (does not lead)-----> Longer life

Healthy habits ------> Longer Life 
Strengthener would be an option which gives an instance that  healthy habits lead to longer life  and   marriage does not lead to longer life

Only option E says that Among people who as young adults  neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke ( i.e don't indulge in unhealthy habits ), those who never marry  live as long as those who marry .

vanam52923 · Answer

Hi  VeritasKarishma 
The first line of the argument says 
Those who marry as young adults live longer than those who don't marry.

But E says among young adults,both unmarried and married if have good habits live longer but premise explicitly mentions that those who marry as young live longer.
Isnot it direct contradiction of the premise ?

Posted from my mobile device

KarishmaB · Answer

No, it is not contradictory to the argument.

Both the statements given below can be true at the same time:
- It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young adults live longer than those who never marry.
- (E) Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke, those who never marry live as long as those who marry.

It is always about averages. 
Say there are 100 married people and 100 unmarried. Say average life of married people is 80 while that of unmarried people is 70. Then, our first statement holds.
Say of the 100 married people, 70 have no bad habits and of the 100 unmarried people, 20 have no bad habits. Say we find that the avg lifespan of these 70 people is 85 yrs and the avg lifespan of these 20 people is also 85 yrs. This is what option (E) says.

Basshead · Answer

We're looking for something that would strengthen the idea that marriage  does not  cause people to live longer.

(A) Marriage tends to cause people to engage less regularly in sports that involve risk of bodily harm.

This suggests that marriage  does  cause people to live longer. Not what we're looking for.

(B) A married person who has an unhealthy habit is more likely to give up that habit than a person with the same habit who is unmarried.

This suggests that marriage  does  cause people to live longer. Not what we're looking for.

(C) A person who smokes is much more likely than a nonsmoker to marry a person who smokes at the time of marriage, and the same is true for people who drink alcohol immoderately.

This choice is irrelevant to the argument -- we can't conclude that this causes people to live longer.

(D) Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give up an unhealthy habit after marriage do not resume the habit later in life.

This suggests that marriage  does  cause people to live longer. Not what we're looking for.

(E) Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke, those who never marry live as long as those who marry.

CORRECT. If we know that those who never marry live as long as those who marry, then the idea that marriage does not cause people to live longer is strengthened.

Elite097 · Answer

The solution from the OG: Capture.PNG

jabhatta2 · Answer

Hi  KarishmaB  - i was wondering if this was a  strengthener  or  weakener  or  none of the above.   ?

I think this would be a  strengthener .

Here is why

(1) per the premise, married adults LIVE LONGER 
(2) per (option F) -- marriage/kids GIVE stress

So how come  married adults  LIVE LONGER then ?

(3) All the more reason given in the argument is true : that  young adults who are about to get married   have fewer UNHEALTHY habits

Hence  marriage   certainly cannot  be the reason why  married adults  LIVE LONGER

Thoughts ?

KarishmaB · Answer

This statement does make it unlikely that marriage leads to a longer life (because it comes with additional stress) but I would wonder whether there are other reasons which decrease stress in marriage such as a working partner means less financial insecurity etc. So the point would be to figure whether, overall, marriage gives less or more stress. 
If overall marriage gives more stress then it may not be the reason for longer life. But our conclusion is based on fewer bad habits so something that tells us that fewer bad habits are responsible for longer life, not marriage would be much more suitable. That is why (E) is a far better answer.

jabhatta2 · Answer

Hi  KarishmaB  – the statement in red above confused me

If you look at option (E) – (E) is  NOT  saying  fewer bad habits are responsible for longer life

Reviewing (option E) – (option E) is referring to  2 groups

BOTH GROUPS have  NO BAD HABBITS

Group X  : no bad habits + marriage 
 Group Y  : no bad habits + no marriage

Group X  and  Group Y  live to the same age.

One cannot conclude, given both Groups (Group x and group y) share the common characteristic of "NO BAD HABBITS" - that  HAVING NO BAD HABBITS  is better than  HAVING BAD HABBITS , if you want to live longer

Because -  Group X  and  Group Y  share a common characteristic.

Instead, i think from (E) - one can conclude that -

“Marriage” HAS ZERO EFFECT on longevity as both groups (Group x and group Y) live to the same age.

Given “marriage” has ZERO EFFECT on longevity --> this strengthens the main conclusion –  marriage DOES NOT CAUSE people to live longer

Thoughts ?

KarishmaB · Answer

There are two variables the argument is discussing - 'bad habits' and 'marriage' and their impact on long life. 
The argument concedes that a correlation exists between marriage and long life but it says that the underlying cause is actually bad habits. 
Married people have fewer bad habits and hence longer life. So marriage is not the reason for longer life; instead, 'fewer bad habits' is the reason for longer life.

Option (E) shows that when we take away the 'bad habits' variable from the picture, marriage has NO impact on long life. It means that bad habits were the ones impacting long life, not marriage.

Iwillget770 · Answer

Hi  KarishmaB ,

Coming to OPTION D and the reasoning you mentioned,

I was not able to interpret the intended meaning as highlighted in Red.

I thought OPTION D conveys that it is the "   inner will power   " of married people that makes them give up unhealthy habits not the   marriage  ... Hence , I went with OPTION D.

What should be done to think in the right way , the way author wants us to interpret OPTION D?

Regards

KarishmaB · Answer

Look, we already know that those who get married have longer lives. 
The author says that marriage doesn't lead to longer life (not like marriage makes people happy and extends their life or something like that). He says that the reason for longer life is that people who are about to get married have fewer bad habits. 
How can we show that actually fewer bad habits lead to longer life? If people with fewer bad habits (irrespective of their marriage status) live longer lives then we can say that fewer bad habits are the actual reason. This is what (E) does.

Now consider (D)
 
(D) Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give up an unhealthy habit after marriage do not resume the habit later in life.

Is this a difference between married and unmarried people? We don't know. What if unmarried people also after giving a bad habit do not resume it later in life? Then this does not give us any distinction between married and unmarried people. Hence it doesn't help us in any way. 
If unmarried people after giving up a bad habit do resume it later, then it seems that marriage has a role to play in keeping habits at bay (perhaps the partner doesn't let them restart). But that is not what we want. We want to say that 'married or not' is irrelevant. That is given by option (E)

shreyans4757583 · Answer

Premise - It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young adults live longer than those who never marry.  This does not show that marriage causes people to live longer , since, as compared with other people of the same age, young adults who are about to get married have fewer of the unhealthy habits that can cause a person to have a shorter life, most notably smoking and immoderate drinking of alcohol.

Conclusion -  This does not show that marriage causes people to live longer
 
Argument Breakdown - Both men and women who marry as young adults live longer than those who are never married. But this does not make marriage a cause for longer life because with other people of the same age the people who tend to get married at that same age have fewer of the unhealthy habits that can cause a person to have a shorter life, like smoking and drinking.

Gap Analysis -

1) The habits can cause shorter life but do they actually cause shorter life?

2) There may be a plethora of reasons for which marriage can cause a person to live longer (such as the positive effect of companionship), but the reasons for other people who don’t get married which negatively affects their lives can be true at the same time. So, the gap between the length of life does widen as people who marry have even longer lives.

Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument above?

(A) Marriage tends to cause people to engage less regularly in sports that involve risk of bodily harm.

- Weakens

(B) A married person who has an unhealthy habit is more likely to give up that habit than a person with the same habit who is unmarried.

- Weakens

(C) A person who smokes is much more likely than a nonsmoker to marry a person who smokes at the time of marriage, and the same is true for people who drink alcohol immoderately.

- irrelevant as we don’t know if these people get married at a young age, also even if they did, the passage says that all people who get married young live longer than those who do not, so such people are ultimately being counted.

(D) Among people who marry as young adults, most of those who give up an unhealthy habit after marriage do not resume the habit later in life.

-weakens

(E) Among people who as young adults neither drink alcohol immoderately nor smoke, those who never marry live as long as those who marry.

- This option says that Unhealthy habits are the main cause of a shorter life, basically marriage has no positive impact on longevity of one’s life. Correct Answer

It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young adults

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It is true of both men and women that those who marry as young adults

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