LSAT 139 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q16

LR Question 16 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Salespeople always steer customers toward products from…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: The salespeople lie about their products’ quality.

REASONING: The salespeople are paid on commission. They recommend the products which get them the highest commissions.

ANALYSIS: The salesmen certainly have a motive to lie. And it’s suspicious that they only recommend items which earn them the highest commissions.

But, it’s possible the salespeople only make true claims, while still recommending only those products that earn them the highest commissions. There are two ways that this could happen.

1. Salespeople use true but misleading claims.
2. The products with the highest commissions are the best products.

So, this argument makes an ad hominem error. We can’t say that salespeople lie just because they have an incentive to lie.

___________

1. This answer means ‘circular reasoning’, i.e. an argument with no evidence. But the argument did have some (faulty) evidence. It claimed the salespeople couldn’t be trusted because of who they were.
2. CORRECT. The source of the claims is ‘a salesperson with an incentive to lie to you’.
   You can’t conclude a claim is wrong just because of who said it.
3. This is a different error. It’s like saying “Dutch people are, on average, taller than the average American adult. Therefore this Dutch baby is taller than the average American adult”.
4. There was no statement sufficient to prove the conclusion. And the argument never mixed up sufficient and necessary.
5. Which authority? The stimulus never mentions anyone who is an expert on salespeople, or lying, or any other subject.