LSAT 133 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q17

LR Question 17 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Psychologist: People tend to make certain cognitive…

QUESTION TYPE: Method of Reasoning

CONCLUSION: People shouldn’t necessarily get rid of the tendency to make mistakes about how happy a future event will make them.

REASONING: Everyone sees certain things wrong (such as parallel lines) but it would be a mistake to get a surgeon to fix that.

ANALYSIS: This is an interesting argument. It’s saying that if we share an error with the entire population then we should not get rid of that error.

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1. There was no such event mentioned. The stimulus is just describing how people tend to perceive things.
2. The argument is not undermining any “theory.” It’s just pointing out that there might be good reason not to alter our perceptions.
3. CORRECT. This is an argument by analogy. We see things wrong and we perceive the future wrong. Since it would be a mistake to fix our vision then by analogy it might also be a mistake to fix our perception.
4. The argument is saying that change is not reasonable.
5. Actually the stimulus uses a particular situation (not fixing eyesight) to argue against a general course of action (not changing your perceptions.) There are many different ways we could try to change how we perceive the future.