LSAT 123 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q8

LR Question 8 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Advertisement: Fabric-Soft leaves clothes soft and fluffy…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: Fabric-Soft is the best fabric softener.

REASONING: Almost all consumers preferred a towel washed with Fabric-Soft to one washed without it.

ANALYSIS: The proper way to test fabric softeners is to test them against each other. That didn’t happen here. The company tested a towel washed with Fabric-Soft against a towel washed without any fabric softener.

So of course Fabric-Soft won! The ad should have made a comparison between fabric softeners.

___________

1. It doesn’t matter if one consumer is allergic. It sounds like this allergy would apply to all fabric softeners. So equally to Fabric-Soft and its competitors. That has no relevance on which softener is best.
2. The argument wasn’t about environmental harm. It was only about the narrow claim of which fabric softener is best at softening fabrics. (That’s what “most effective” means. The LSAT is very literal.)
3. Same as B. The conclusion is only about which softener is “most effective”. Taken literally, price has nothing to do with effectiveness.
4. The question is only about whether Fabric-Soft works well. It doesn’t matter if people want to use it.
    
   (i.e. someone who doesn’t bother ironing clothes could still determine which iron is most effective.)
5. CORRECT. The argument only mentioned a towel “washed without it [Fabric-Soft]” So we have no evidence consumers were offered towels washed using different fabric softeners. That doesn’t make for a good comparison between softeners.