Q22 - The writers of the television show Ambitions

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
Match the Reasoning

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: The characters will not be developed in a more realistic manner.
Evidence: If the writers made the characters more realistic, the viewership for the show would shrink, and the writers will choose to maximize their audience.

Answer Anticipation:
This an argument by contrapositive.
Given: X --> Y and ~Y, we can fairly conclude ~X.

Given: If more realistic characters, then viewership shrinks.
Writers don't want viewership to shrink.
Thus, writers won't make more realistic characters.

If we wanted to capture more of the color of the conversation, we could think about it more in terms of goal / action / result. If they took a certain action (more realistic characters), they would see a certain result (less viewership). Since the goal is to avoid that result (maximize viewership), then they won't take that action.

As I look at each answer I'll ask, "Is there a conditional premise? If not, bail. If so, is a fact provided that goes against the right side? If not, bail. If so, does the conclusion say that the left side will not occur?"

Correct Answer:
D

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) There is a conditional, but the fact provided is about the left side, whereas we want to hear a fact that goes against the right side. Bail.

(B) There is a conditional, but the fact provided is about the left side, whereas we want to hear a fact that goes against the right side. Bail.

(C) The conclusion is a conditional. Bail.

(D) YES! There is a conditional. Then the fact provided goes against the right side, and the conclusion goes against the left side.

(E) There's no conditional premise, so bail.

Takeaway/Pattern: It's always annoying when they use the same topic five times over. Luckily, the argument structure here was fairly straightforward. Arguing via contrapositive is probably one of the top 3 argument structures (the other two being "A -> B and B -> C, thus A -> C" and "X is either A or B. It's not A, so it must be B.")

As it turned out, the correct answer only mimicked the contrapositive structure, not the conversational topic of goal / action / result.

#officialexplanation