LSAT 93 - Section 2 - Question 05

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the conclusion drawn in the columnist’s argument?

This is a Main Conclusion question.

Many people with access to the Internet express a longing for emotional connection to a global human community. This longing often leads them to use the Internet to learn about other cultures.

The stimulus starts off with two sentences providing context – (1) there are a lot of people with access to the Internet who want an emotional connection to people around the world, and (2) this desire often leads those people to use the Internet to learn about other cultures.

Once we hit the word, “However”, that signals where the author’s opinion comes in:

However, learning about other cultures probably will not satisfy their longing…

The author thinks that learning about other cultures probably won’t “satisfy their longing.” That sounds like a conclusion for two reasons. First, it’s a prediction about what will happen, and predictions are often conclusions – you naturally want a prediction to be backed up by evidence. Second, it’s an opinion about the effectiveness of something. When someone tells you that something is good or bad for achieving a certain goal, you’re probably wondering, “Why should I believe that?”

And we can confirm that the author’s opinion is the conclusion here by the word “for,” which follows it and introduces the rest of the stimulus:

…for the Internet is utilized primarily for acquiring information rather than developing feelings of interconnectedness.

“For” is used as a premise indicator here. You can replace “for” with “because,” and the statement will still make sense. Why will learning about other cultures probably not satisfy those people? Because, the Internet is used primarily for getting information rather than developing feelings of interconnectedness.

If you’re especially attuned to flawed reasoning, you might notice that this argument isn’t valid. Just because the Internet isn’t used mainly for the purpose of feeling interconnected does not mean that it can’t help you feel more interconnected. An action can have an effect, regardless of whether its purpose was to produce that effect. I don’t scroll through social media for the purpose of feeling FOMO, but scrolling through social media still has that effect.

In addition, the stimulus is referring to a particular kind of person: people whose longing for interconnectedness leads them to use the Internet. Their kind of Internet use isn’t necessarily the same as the average Internet use. Most of the time, the Internet is used to look up the hours a restaurant is open, or to see the weather forecast, or to get the schedule of a train. Perhaps that usage doesn’t make us feel more connected. But what about reading the Wikipedia page for Japanese culture, or browsing the Brazil subreddit? Perhaps we can feel an emotional connection from that kind of use.

All this discussion of flawed reasoning, however, is beside the point on this question. We’re just looking for the conclusion, and we found it – it’s the line “learning about other cultures probably will not satisfy their longing.” If we flesh out the referential language “their longing,” the full conclusion is “learning about other cultures probably will not satisfy the longing for emotional connection to a global human community that many people feel.”

Answer Choice (A) It is common for people who have access to the Internet to express a longing for emotional connection to an international human community.

This is just a restatement of the first sentence, which is context.

Answer Choice (B) The longing for emotional connection to a global human community frequently leads people to use the Internet in order to acquire information about other cultures.

This is a restatement of the second sentence, which is also context.

Answer Choice (C) People who have access to the Internet tend to use it primarily for acquiring information and only secondarily for developing feelings of interconnectedness.

This isn’t even supported by the stimulus. We don’t know that developing feelings of interconnectedness is the secondary reason people use the Internet. The last part of the stimulus merely said that it wasn’t the primary reason – that doesn’t imply it’s the secondary reason. Maybe it’s the third, fourth, or twentieth reason. Or not a reason at all. In any case, even if this answer were supported by the stimulus, it’s still not correct, because it’s just trying to restate the premise.

Correct Answer Choice (D) For people desiring connection to a global human community, learning about other cultures through the Internet probably will not provide emotional connection to those cultures.

This is what we’re looking for. Although it has different phrasing, it’s expressing the idea that learning about other cultures probably won’t satisfy the longing for emotional connection with a global community that many people feel.

Answer Choice (E) When people long for connection to a global human community, they tend to engage in behavior that results in the acquisition of knowledge about other cultures but rarely produces genuine emotional connection to those cultures.

(E) is tempting because it combines a lot of words the stimulus used, and sounds close to something the author actually thinks. But it’s wrong because it’s about the wrong group of people.

First, this answer states that people who long for connection “tend to engage in behavior that results in acquisition of knowledge…”. But the conclusion is specifically referring to people who engage in a particular behavior – using the Internet to learn about other cultures. It’s not making a statement about people who open up a book, or ask a friend, or do other things to gain knowledge.

Second, the first clause of this answer also refers to the wrong group of people: “When people long for connection to a global human community…”.

The first sentence of the stimulus starts by referring to a particular set of people – people with access to the Internet. It then specifies a subset of those people – those who also express a longing for emotional connection to a global community. The second sentence refers to a subset of that subset – those who also use the Internet to learn about other cultures. The conclusion is about that subset.

(E) makes a statement about the set of people who “long for connection to a global human community.” But this is broader than the set of people who (1) have access to the Internet, (2) have the longing, and (3) use the Internet to learn about other cultures.