LR Question 14 Explanation, by LSATHacks
QUESTION TEXT: Sharon heard her favorite novelist speak out…
QUESTION TYPE: Principle
SITUATION: Sharon’s favorite novelist criticized a political candidate that Sharon supports. Sharon decided that the novelist was not so smart, and kept her opinion of the political candidate.
ANALYSIS: This principle question gives you an individual situation. You need to find a principle that matches the information in this stimulus.
Sharon seems to trust her political candidate more than she trusts the novelist. That’s about all we know. She liked both the writer and the candidate for a long time, but supported the politician when the two of them disagreed.
There are a few possible interpretations:
- Given a choice between a long favored novelist and a long favored politician, some people will choose the politician.
- If someone contradicts your opinion, you’ll probably disagree with them and stick to your opinion.
___________
- This isn’t supported. Sharon was one of the novelist’s most dedicated fans, yet she wasn’t influenced by the novelist.
- This is far too broad. It matches none of the elements of the stimulus, and it tells us that we should almost always reject the political opinions of artists. But Sharon might have listened to the novelist if she hadn’t been a long term supporter of the politician.
- This is too broad. We don’t actually know that the artist was wrong to speak out. The novelist lost Sharon’s support, but maybe many others agreed with the novelist.
- CORRECT. This works. Sharon had supported the politician for a long time. The novelist contradicted her. Rather than reassess her opinion, Sharon rejected the novelist.
- This doesn’t work. Sharon’s allegiance to both the novelist and the politician was longstanding.
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This is a great explanation, but I wanna know how is it that you know that Sharon has liked the novelist for roughly the same number of years she has liked the politician? I know it says favorite and then estimation, but I didn’t wanna jump to the conclusion that it meant longstanding. This is the detail that actually led me to also consider choice E. A reply would be much appreciated!
Good point! The stimulus doesn’t actually say that she’s liked this novelist for a long time. We only know that this is her favourite novelist. The rest of the explanation still stands, but your comment is well-taken.