LSAT 134 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q17

LR Question 17 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: People want to be instantly and intuitively liked …

QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption

CONCLUSION: It’s imprudent to look prudent.

REASONING: People want to be liked. People who appear prudent are resented.

ANALYSIS: There’s something missing here. We know people who seem to judge others (prudent) are resented. But then the conclusion suddenly jumps to saying that appearing prudent is a bad idea.

The argument has shown that appearing prudent leads to resentment, but it hasn’t explained why resentment makes something imprudent.

So we need something that tells us that if something causes people to resent you, then it’s imprudent. Without that connection, the conclusion doesn’t follow.

___________

1. Even if spontaneous people are well liked, that doesn’t tell us anything about whether cautious people are imprudent. This would be the equivalent of the argument talking about tall people and I tell you something about short people. It doesn’t matter.
2. This reverses the logic by giving us: imprudent → acts instantly. But the conclusion is trying to prove: appearing prudent → imprudent. Just because all imprudent people behave a certain way doesn’t mean anyone who behaves differently is prudent or imprudent.
3. The stimulus says people resent those who appear to form opinions cautiously. This actually changes who gets resented by saying people resent those who are less prudent than themselves. Those are completely different groups, so this doesn’t help the argument.
4. Great, now we have a definition of what it means to be intuitive. That doesn’t tell us anything about prudence, resentment, or whether appearing prudent is a bad idea.
5. CORRECT. Now the reasoning works. Appearing prudent → causes resentment → imprudent. So, appearing prudent is imprudent.