LR Question 25 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: A recent survey showed that 50 percent of people…
QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning
CONCLUSION: More people think a politician should resign if indicted than convicted.
REASONING: 50% of people think a politician should resign if indicted. 35% think politicians should resign only if convicted.
ANALYSIS: The argument’s conclusion is surprising because a conviction is worse than an indictment. But the argument has confused a sufficient condition with a necessary condition. It’s quite likely that more than 35% of people think a politician should resign if convicted.
Consider the following responses to the survey question: Should a politician resign if indicted?
Person A: Yes, people should resign if they are indicted and also if they are convicted.
Person B: No, an indictment’s nothing. Politicians should only resign if they are convicted. And maybe not even then…depends on the crime.
The fifty percent who said a politician should resign if indicted probably also think a politician should resign if convicted. Whereas the 35% who said a politician should resign only if convicted seem to be very lenient on official crime.
There may not be any overlap between the two groups. It’s possible that 100% of people think a politician should resign if convicted, but 35% of those people think there’s no other reason to resign.
___________
- It’s fine to base a conclusion on a sample if the sample is representative. We have no reason to believe this survey was unrepresentative.
- CORRECT. See the discussion above.
- Which term is ambiguous? They all seem fairly clear.
- Actually, the argument draws conclusions about two specific beliefs based on questions about two beliefs. There’s nothing wrong with that.
- All of these premises could be true. But they don’t prove the conclusion.
Recap: The question begins with “A recent survey showed that 50 percent of people”. It is a Flawed Reasoning question. Learn how to master LSAT Flaw questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.
More Resources for Flaw Questions
- Flaw drills: Use these to practice making examples of abstract flaws.
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Flaw questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers flaw questions.
For A, what in the stimulus indicates that the sample is representative? Are we supposed to assume it is unless noted in the stimulus by something like “sample of people taken from my Facebook group” or something like that?
Correct! This stimulus has given us no indication that the sample is unrepresentative. Usually it is okay to assume that the sample is representative if there is no indication pointing to an unrepresentative or biased sample.