LSAT 118 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q21

LR Question 21 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Experimental psychology requires the application of statistics…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Parallel Reasoning

CONCLUSION: More training in statistics means you will be more effective at experimental psychology research.

REASONING: Statistical training is a necessary condition for experimental psychology research.

ANALYSIS: This is a bad argument. Just because something is necessary doesn’t mean that more of it is good. For example: we need to drink water to survive. That doesn’t mean that more water means more survival. At a certain point you will die if you drink too much water.

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1. CORRECT. This matches the structure of the stimulus. Love and support are necessary. But that doesn’t prove that unlimited amounts are good. Celebrities receive excessive amount of love and support from the public. They go to great lengths to shield themselves from it because it is overwhelming. 
2. This is a good argument. Here, working longer is not a necessary condition. Instead the argument points out that it is directly related to income. Work longer and earn more.
3. This is a decent argument. The risk grows over a period of time. Therefore the risk grows as we get older.
4. This is a good argument, assuming medicine requires understanding disease. Without chemistry you will never understand disease. [This answer does not say that more chemistry mean more medical knowledge. You just need a basic amount.]
5. This is a bad argument. It assumes that a necessary condition (chemical understanding) is a sufficient condition for learning medicine. But the error is different from the stimulus’ error.