Bob's Argument: “I have noticed from quite a number of people – at both my job and in my private life – the people who a

[answerhappygod]

Bob's Argument: “I have noticed from quite a number of people –at both my job and in my private life – the people who are marriedare much happier overall compared to unmarried folk. I guess, ingeneral, being married goes together with happiness. So, what seemsquite clear from my line of reasoning is that being married causespeople to be happy. There is not other real option forunderstanding this pattern!” Sandra’s assessment of Bob’s argument:“You are trying to make a causal argument but you made one error.You are suffering from a selection effect: you notice happy couplesmore than happy, single people and this error calls into questionyour starting point. But, other than this error, you are correctthere is no other option but for your final conclusion." Xiao’sresponse to Sandra and Bob: “Your assessment of Bob’s originalargument has a pretty big error, Sandra: you have overlooked theproblems with his causal reasoning. Bob’s problem is that he is notopen-minded enough about some of the other options that mightexplain the general correlation he thinks he has grounds forasserting. I am quite sure that there is a side effect -- such as aplacebo -- going on here, and this problem with his causalreasoning would do a better job of explaining the correlation thanthat marriage causes happiness." (a) Using course sources, write a6-8 sentence paragraph of English discussing the strengths andweakness in Sandra’s assessment of Bob’s argument.