LSAT 140 | Section 3 | Logical Reasoning: Q5

LR Question 5 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Some people believe that advertising is socially…

QUESTION TYPE: Complete The Argument

CONCLUSION: The argument will likely say that there we haven’t proven advertising is bad.

REASONING: Art and music changes people’s preferences, and we think they are fine. Advertising also changes people’s preferences.

ANALYSIS: This is a “complete the argument” question; you do not need to be critical or find flaws.

Instead, you need to understand how the author makes their case. This is an argument by analogy. The author mentions art and music classes because they are similar to advertising. So the author will conclude that advertising is fine, just like those classes.

The author agrees that advertising can change preferences. Their point is that this is not necessarily bad, since music and art classes do the same thing, and those classes are ok.

Notice the word “however”. This means the author disagrees with the first sentence.

___________

1. This answer is a factual statement about how much advertising changes preferences. The author isn’t concerned with the degree of preference shift. Her point is that the preference shift doesn’t matter.
2. Nonsense. The author doesn’t think advertising is pernicious (bad). She mentions art and music classes to prove that advertising is acceptable.
3. CORRECT. Art and music classes change preferences, and we don’t think they are bad. So if advertising is bad, it’s not simply because it changes preferences.
4. This goes too far. The author didn’t say advertising is good. She just pointed out that we can’t say it is bad merely because it changes preferences, since art and music classes also change preferences.
5. The stimulus contradicts this answer. Music and art classes do change people’s preferences. The author appears to agree that advertising changes preferences.

Recap: The question begins with “Some people believe that advertising is socially”. It is a Complete the Argument question. To practice more Complete the Argument questions, have a look at the LSAT Questions by Type page.