Self-study
Consumer: A new law requires all cigarette packaging to display health warnings, disturbing pictures of smoking-related diseases, and no logos. ████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██████████ █████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██████████
Summary
The author concludes that the new law concerning cigarette packaging will not affect the smoking habits of most people who smoke cigarettes regularly. Why? Because most of these people rarely look at the packaging when they take out a cigarette.
Missing Connection
We’re trying to conclude that the new law won’t affect most regular smokers’ smoking habits. But the premise doesn’t tell us what allows us to know when a law will have no effect on regular smokers’ habits. All that the premise establishes is that most regular smokers rarely look at cigarette packaging when taking out a cigarette. But does failing to look at cigarette packaging when taking out a cigarette imply that the packaging can’t be effective in deterring people from smoking? Not necessarily.
To make the argument valid, then, we want to establish that if regular smokers rarely look at cig. packaging when taking out a cig., then the packaging won’t affect their smoking habits.
3.
The conclusion of the consumer's ████████ ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
If implementing certain ███████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ██████████ █████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██████████ █████ ███████████ ██████ ██ ████████████
We’re trying to prove that the regulations on packaging won’t affect regular smokers’ habits. Whether the regulations should be implemented is a separate, irrelevant issue.
b
If those who █████████ █████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███████████████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ██████ █████ ███████ ███████
(B) is designed to reach a conclusion that something is likely to affect smoking habits; but we want to prove that something will NOT affect smoking habits.
c
Almost all people ███ █████████ █████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ███████
Even if most regular smokers are already familiar with the risks of smoking, that doesn’t guarantee that packaging warnings won’t affect their smoking habits. Perhaps the packaging could encourage them to smoke less often. So (C) doesn’t guarantee that the new packaging won’t affect smoking habits.
d
The new packaging ██████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████ █████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████████
(D) establishes that in order for the new packaging to affect smoking habits of someone, that person must frequently look at the packaging when taking out cigs. We know that most regular smokers don’t frequently look at the packaging when taking out cigs. According to (D), then, the new packaging cannot affect the smoking habits of those people.
e
Most people who █████████ █████ ██████████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ██ █████ █████ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ██ ██ ███
(E) doesn’t establish anything about what’s required for packaging to affect smoking habits. Remember, we already know that most regular smokers don’t frequently look at cig. packaging when taking out cigs. What we want is to connect that fact to lack of effectiveness in changing smoking habits.