LSAT 151 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q2

LR Question 2 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: In a study of honesty conducted in various retail stores …

QUESTION TYPE: Evaluate the Argument

CONCLUSION: Most people who received extra change behaved dishonestly.

REASONING: They didn’t return the extra change.

ANALYSIS: How often do you count your exact change after paying? Probably not that often. If the cashier is giving you back change, the assumption is that it’s the correct amount. You’re probably not that likely to catch an extra dollar.

To conclude that they acted dishonestly, we’d need to know whether they knew they received an extra dollar. Did they count their change?

___________

1. CORRECT. If they counted their change and still didn’t return the extra dollar, we could conclude they acted dishonestly. Without that information, it’s a pretty weak argument.
2. The study is only about customers who paid with cash. How many people paid with card versus cash is irrelevant.
3. It doesn’t matter how the customers would describe themselves. You can think you’re honest but still act dishonestly.
4. Whether people thought the dollar was given intentionally doesn’t matter much. Even if intentional, they could still know it was extra money that was not theirs. Besides, this tells us something about the people who did return the money. The conclusion is about those who didn’t return the money.
5. Sure, a $5 mistake might change people’s behavior. But the argument is about the $1 case. This doesn’t evaluate whether keeping the extra dollar was dishonest.