LSAT Strengthen Practice Question: Self-Selection
An original strengthen question from our free Question of the Day rotation, built around a trap the LSAT reuses constantly: self-selection. Try it first, then read the explanation — it teaches the move, not just the answer.
Your job:Make the conclusion more believable.
A wellness researcher found that office workers with houseplants on their desks reported lower stress levels than workers without them. She concluded that keeping a houseplant reduces workplace stress.
Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the researcher's argument?
Show the answer & full explanation
The correct answer is A
The JBDM line
Just because plant owners are calmer doesn't mean plants calm people — maybe calm people get plants.
The maybes
- MaybeMaybe less-stressed workers are the ones who bother to keep plants.
- MaybeMaybe plant-keepers differ in other ways, like better workspaces or lighter workloads.
Why A is right
If the plants arrived by random giveaway, nobody self-selected into plant ownership. The 'calm people choose plants' story — the strongest attack on this argument — is blocked, because chance, not temperament, decided who got one. What remains points at the plants.
Why the others are wrong
- BLonger lunch breaks hand the argument an alternative cause — that weakens it.
- CPopularity trends say nothing about what plants do to stress.
- DEveryone finding work stressful is background, not support for the causal link.
- EA respected questionnaire polishes the measurement while leaving the causal gap wide open.
Sammy's note
To strengthen a causal claim, block the reverse arrow.
What's a JBDM line?
Just Because Doesn't Mean (JBDM) is the Burton Method's foundational framework for attacking LSAT arguments: identify the premise, identify the conclusion, then say "just because [premise] doesn't mean [conclusion]" and generate "maybes" — alternative explanations that expose the gap between them. That gap is what weaken, flaw, strengthen, and assumption questions all test, so every explanation on this page starts with the JBDM line. It's a micro-lesson in the system, not just an answer key.
One question a day builds the habit
Answer today's question and start a streak — then see how Sammy teaches the whole system, JBDM included, in a free lesson.