LSAT 92, Logical Reasoning I, Q24, LSATHacks

QUESTION TEXT: Editorial: Last year, many polls found that most people in our…

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: When responding to polls, people often portray themselves as they wish to be perceived, rather than as they actually are.

REASONING: Most people claimed to be tired of news programs’ obsession with celebrity scandals and that they were unwilling to watch those programs. However, ratings for those programs increased at the same time.

ANALYSIS: The author’s conclusion here is two-part. First, they claim that people portray themselves as they wish to be perceived. Second, they claim that it doesn’t match with what the people are actually like.

In Necessary Assumption questions, we can look for the missing gap in logic. Here, the second conclusion is sound. People claim to be unwilling to watch the programs, but ratings soared – so the people are falsely portraying themselves.

The first conclusion says that people portray themselves as they wish to be perceived. We know that people portrayed themselves as tired of the programs and unwilling to watch them. However, we do not have anything to show that this is how people wish to be perceived. The correct answer will fill this gap.

In any case, remember the Necessary Assumption negation rule: the correct answer will, when negated, render the argument impossible.

___________

1. We are missing information about how people wish to be perceived. This answer does not help us reach the conclusion. It only draws a stronger connection between being tired of the programs and being unwilling to watch them.
2. This supports the second conclusion – that people were not accurately portraying themselves. But we already had enough evidence of that. We’re missing evidence for the first conclusion.
3. See B. We want to support the other conclusion.
4. See B. We don’t need evidence that people were misleading about themselves.
5. CORRECT. This tells us that people were portraying themselves how they wished to be perceived, filling our logic gap.

Recap: The question begins with “Editorial: Last year, many polls found that most people in our”. It is a Necessary Assumption question. Learn more about LSAT Necessary questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.

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