When does causal conclusion become problematic?

[seychelles1718]

When the author's premises present phenomenon/correlation and the author then concludes with a very weak causal claim, is the argument still flawed or valid (since the certainty of the causal claim is very weak)?

I am confused about when the causal conclusion becomes problematic since often the right answers for MSS/Infer Qs are weak causal statements (e.g. A sometimes causes B, A can cause B, A is at least in part responsible for B).

[ohthatpatrick]

You've basically nailed it.

From a correlation or supporting stat/phenomenon, an author is certainly allowed to conclude that [some potential cause] may be the cause of [some supposed effect].

Authors become vulnerable to objections/assumptions when they are overly confident in their specific causal interpretation.

On "most strongly supported" tasks in Inference and in Reading Comp, the correct answer sometimes asks you to make a reasonable causal speculation.

We'll always favor something more provable than that, but sometimes the correct answer is causal and speculative. It is correct, in those instances, simply because it's the answer choice that's MORE supportable than any other answer choice.