#20 - Social critic: One of the most important ways in which

[Luke Haqq]

Hi PVequalsnRT!

One can see causality in each sentence of this question. While seeing the causality in these might require a bit of abstraction, I've italicized the words that suggest causality:

• - "One of the most important ways in which a society socializes children is by making them feel ashamed of their immoral behavior." Here, socialization is a cause that has the effect of making children feel ashamed.
  - "But in many people this shame results in deep feelings of guilt and self-loathing that can be a severe hardship." Here, shame is described as causing deep feelings of guilt.
  - "Thus, moral socialization has had a net effect of increasing the total amount of suffering." Here, moral socialization is described as causing the effect of increasing suffering.

The flaw in this stimulus is accurately by (D): the author "takes for granted that a behavior that sometimes leads to a certain phenomenon cannot also significantly reduce the overall occurrence of that phenomenon." That is, the "behavior" refers to making others feel ashamed for immoral behavior, which can create loathing and hardship for "many" (as you notice) but not necessarily all people. It's possible that many people do find this shame a hardship, but this doesn't establish that overall, net suffering has thereby been increased. Rather, it is possible that it making people feel ashamed for immoral might increase suffering for many people while at the same time reducing suffering overall.