LSAT 140 – Section 2 – Question 19

LSAT 140 - Section 2 - Question 19

December 2013

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT140 S2 Q19
+LR
+Exp
Weaken +Weak
Causal Reasoning +CausR
Sampling +Smpl
A
17%
159
B
4%
157
C
22%
163
D
55%
166
E
2%
158
146
161
176
 +Hardest 149.441 +SubsectionMedium

Viewers surveyed immediately after the televised political debate last year between Lopez and Tanner tended to think that Lopez had made the better arguments, but the survey respondents who reported that Lopez’s arguments were better may have been biased in favor of Lopez. After all, Lopez eventually did win the election.

Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author hypothesizes that the viewers responded that Lopez gave better arguments during a televised political debate may have been biased in favor of Lopez. This is based on the fact that Lopez eventually won the election.

Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the fact Lopez eventually won the election suggests that the people thought Lopez’s arguments were better in the debate were biased. This overlooks the possibility that Lopez’s arguments were in fact better and convinced people to vote for him.

A
Most people who voted in the election that Lopez won did not watch the debate.
The author never assumed that most people who voted in the election watched the debate. There could have been a tiny number of people who watched the debate; the author simply thinks those people may have been biased toward Lopez.
B
Most people in the live audience watching the debate who were surveyed immediately afterward said that they thought that Tanner was more persuasive in the debate than was Lopez.
It’s not clear what live viewer reactions have to do with a survey of people who saw the debate on television. In any case, (B) is consistent with the author’s theory, since the survey respondents’ opinion about who won the debate still can be due to bias.
C
The people who watched the televised debate were more likely to vote for Tanner than were the people who did not watch the debate.
This compares the likelihood of voting for Tanner among viewers and nonviewers. But what matters is whether the viewers were more likely to vote for Tanner or Lopez. (C) could just mean 1% of viewers were likely to vote for Tanner (as long as that is greater than for nonviewers).
D
Most of the viewers surveyed immediately prior to the debate said that they would probably vote for Tanner.
This is strong evidence most viewers were not biased in favor of Lopez before the debate, which suggests bias was not the reason viewers of the debate said Lopez had better arguments.
E
Lopez won the election over Tanner by a very narrow margin.
The narrow nature of the victory doesn’t change the fact Lopez won. The author never suggested that the victory was dominant or that the specific magnitude of the win affects the likelihood that viewers of the debate were biased.

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LSAT PrepTest 140 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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