LSAT 149 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q8

LR Question 8 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: A study of guppy fish shows that a male guppy will…

QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen

CONCLUSION: The study shows that male guppies will alter their courting behavior based on feedback from females.

REASONING: Females liked orange, and male guppies tended to show their orange side.

ANALYSIS: This argument is missing a step. It’s not clear how feedback from the females made the males decide to show their orange side. Maybe male guppies are hardwired to show their orange side, no matter what the females do.

Females could have influenced males. We can strengthen the argument by showing they definitely did.

___________

1. CORRECT. A model of a female guppy can’t give feedback – it’s not alive. This answer shows that, absent feedback, males are not more likely to show orange. That means that with the live females, it’s likely that males showed their orange side because they got feedback from females.
2. We don’t care about other species. That information can’t tell us anything about guppies.
3. We don’t care which guppies succeed in reproducing. The conclusion was very specific. It’s about whether female feedback can alter male courting behavior. 
4. It doesn’t matter what color females are. The point was that males have a choice of colors to show females. We want to prove that females influenced this choice.
5. This weakens the argument. If guppies can’t interact, then there’s less possibility for feedback. This makes it less likely that feedback from females caused males to show their orange sides.