LR Question 23 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Medical school professor: Most malpractice suits arise…
QUESTION TYPE: Most Strongly Supported
FACTS:
- Most medical lawsuits happen because people think their doctors are negligent or careless.
- Doctors are less compassionate than they used to be, and more rude and patronizing.
- This is because doctors view medicine as a science, and because certain economic incentives encourage doctors to treat patients rudely.
ANALYSIS: On most strongly supported questions you need to see how the facts fit together. I’ve rearranged the facts from the stimulus into three key groupings. I prephrased the answer as “economic incentives and the view of medicine as a science contribute to lawsuits”, but the right answer didn’t do this.
Instead the right answer just rephrased the second sentence of the stimulus (note: not the second fact above.)
___________
- We know that economic incentives are a factor. But that doesn’t mean they are the main cause. For instance, we also know that the view that medicine is a science encourages lawsuits.
- We know that both economic incentives and the view of medicine as a science encourage doctors to treat patients rudely. But we don’t know why doctors view medicine as a science – the stimulus didn’t say. You can’t say that two things are linked just because they produce the same effect.
- Careful. We know that most lawsuits arise due to patients’ perceptions. But perceptions can be accurate! So perceived negligence could be actual negligence, and the lawsuits could be justified.
- This is way too strong. The scientific outlook certainly has some downsides (rudeness, etc.), but it may have advantages as well.
- CORRECT. This is just a restatement of the second sentence. Doctors view medicine as a science, and this makes them less compassionate. The way you view something is an action, and being less compassionate is the same as not caring.
Recap: The question begins with “Medical school professor: Most malpractice suits arise”. It is a Most Strongly Supported question. To practice more Most Strongly Supported questions, have a look at the LSAT Questions by Type page.
More Resources for Most Strongly Supported Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Most Strongly Supported questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers most strongly supported questions.
I feel like the LSAT always moves the goal post with qualification at its own whim. And that’s very frustrating. The stimulus talks about MOST doctors seeing it as such and such and therefore being less compassionate. Nowhere in the stimulus is there any mention of all doctors behaving the same way. E says “Doctors foster, by their actions, the perception that they don’t care about their patients.” Which doctors do this? For this statement to be the correct answer it must be applied to every single doctor on the planet and the stimulus doesn’t say that. What if some doctors foster, by their actions, a perception of kindness. That is indeed very plausible given the stimulus info. The lsat loves to move the goal post.. you’ll lose a mark if you accidentally mistake a “some” for a “most” on one question but the omission of qualification when they feel like it is perfectly fine.
Remember, in most strongly supported questions, we’re looking for an answer choice that has more support for its components than any of the five we’ve been given. Each of the other answer choices makes strong claims that are entirely unsupported by the stimulus.
(E) says “doctors foster, by their actions”, which I’d argue is equivalent to saying, “most doctors foster”. The number is unspecified, but we know it’s greater than zero, and the context implies “doctors” here is used to mean something like “doctors in general” or “doctors on average”. “Most” on the LSAT means greater than 50%. The language of the stimulus matches the language of the answer choice. We’re told: (1) Lawsuits could be avoided if doctors (again, number unspecified but the implication is most) listened better (2) Economic incentives encourage doctors to treat patients rudely.
Note that even if one argues that the quantity could be “some” and not “most” — the relevant language in the stimulus and answer choice is the same; we’re given facts about “doctors”. So, either way there’s support for (E).