LSAT 113 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q9

LR Question 9 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: As part of a survey, approximately 10,000…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning

CONCLUSION: People are more willing to reveal financial information to a stranger when they are younger.

REASONING: In a recent survey people were more likely to refuse to answer financial questions if they were older.

ANALYSIS: The conclusion is possible. But there are alternate explanations. It could be that values have changed. Meaning that the people who are currently old would have refused to answer financial questions even when they were young.

The people who are currently young might continue to answer questions even when they get old.

___________

1. CORRECT. The old people might have said no back when they were 25, too. 
2. It doesn’t matter. 10,000 is a big enough number that it can be approximate. The sample size certainly isn’t too small.
3. The conclusion was only about how likely people were to answer questions. It made no claim about income and savings levels.
4. The stimulus did not make any assumptions beforehand. It just dispassionately described the survey results.
5. The argument didn’t claim that every old person refused to answer. It just claimed that on average they were more likely to refuse.