Q12 - Several recent studies establish that

[kmewmewblue]

I eliminated(A)and (B).
I understand why (D) is correct by having nothing to do with the argument.

But, (C) and (E) also seems irrelevant....

Thank you in advance.

[timmydoeslsat]

The correct answer to this problem is (C).

It is the only choice that does not weaken the argument.

We have a conclusion based upon one piece of evidence.

Evidence:
In each study, over 80% of the people surveyed indicated that they wanted to be told if they had any serious medical condition.

Conclusion:
Several recent studies establish that most people would want to be informed if they had any serious medical condition.


As we can see, we are jumping from people being surveyed to people in general. We are not told that this is a representative sample in the survey. Perhaps all of the people being surveyed are 1st graders.

Since this is a weaken EXCEPT question stem, I will be viewing each answer choice as a weakener, if it does....eliminate. If it does not weaken...that is our answer.

A) Another survey was done that had opposite results. This weakens the global nature of our conclusion.

B) This weakens. It shows a reason why we could view the results with suspicion and cannot conclude something based on shaky evidence.

C) Not sure how this would weaken. Does it matter if the person giving the survey has a background in medicine? Simply asking questions in front of you would not require a background in medicine. I will hold this for now and move on.

D) This inflicts bias into the survey results given into evidence. This weakens the argument.

E) This shows that our sample was not representative.

So, C is our answer.

[patrice.antoine]

Bump. Can an instructor please explain how (D) weakens???

[maryadkins]

Regarding (D) Patrice, timmydoesLSAT is right about the bias. Think about what it would mean if the questions in the survey were suggestive that there was a right answer and a wrong answer--people might be more inclined to respond "correctly" because they want to do whatever the "reasonable" person would do. Often when people are criticizing surveys of this sort, a criticism is that the wording of the questions implicitly conveyed to people what they "should" answer. This is what (D) is getting at.

[icebreaker]

A) Another survey was done that had opposite results. This weakens the global nature of our conclusion.

Would anyone be able to help me with a question related to answer choice (A)?

I see how another study resulting in the opposite result of our conclusion is a valid weakener; however, I am wondering why this is the case if our premise (which is still valid in itself) still holds to support our conclusion?

In another question, I've noticed that another study is irrelevant to our premise to conclusion relationship because it is still the case that our study (in the original premise) exists.

Help appreciated Thank you!

[WaltGrace1983]

A) Another survey was done that had opposite results. This weakens the global nature of our conclusion.

Would anyone be able to help me with a question related to answer choice (A)?

I see how another study resulting in the opposite result of our conclusion is a valid weakener; however, I am wondering why this is the case if our premise (which is still valid in itself) still holds to support our conclusion?

In another question, I've noticed that another study is irrelevant to our premise to conclusion relationship because it is still the case that our study (in the original premise) exists.

Help appreciated Thank you!

The premise may offer some support for the conclusion. However, the premise goes from talking about people in a few SURVEYS to most people in GENERAL. (A) is showing that these surveys may not be representative of MOST people because another equally valid survey got different results.

[huskybins]

Dear all,
I knew it could seem stupid but I just can't help but asking why C can't be a valid weakening option? Maybe "serious medical condition" does require certain medicine background to be clearly defined for conducting a survey. Without a canonical definition of what situation or symptom shall qualify a "serious medical situation", how can the researcher warrant the accuracy of her survey? Maybe someone with heart beating rate at 40/min looks not a serious medical condition to a researcher without medical background but that can be regarded quite differently from some medical experts.

So if the accuracy of survey result is suspicious, then the conclusion from the stimulus is in much less certainty accordingly.

Really appreciate any input any folk would like to offer.