PT9.S4.Q22 - When butterfat was considered nutritious

tahurrrrr

This is a weakening question and I was so lost. I ended up picking an answer choice that I was 90% certain was wrong just to be sure my eyes would go straight to this problem in my review

My understanding of premise/conclusion:

Conclusion- Manufacturers who wish to call their reduced-butterfat butter by the more appealing name"lite butter" should be allowed to do so

Premises- 1) The public should be encouraged to eat foods with lower butterfat content
2) The word "imitation" deters some people from purchasing a product because it connotes falsity

Am I reading too much into the "should be allowed to do so" part?

Wait...I may have just figured it out. But I'm not sure. Is E the correct answer because the label "imitation" is encouraging people to buy reduced-butterfat products? And changing the label to "lite butter" might deceive them into buying something higher in butterfat content than what they are currently buying?

help

Ashley2018-1

I think it’s more along the lines of there’s no need to change the name to “lite” if the term “imitation” is already driving people to purchase foods with lower butterfat content, which was the whole reason the author thought manufacturers should change the name in the first place....

But could someone explain why C is incorrect?

tahurrrrr

Without fully understanding exactly why E is right, I think C is wrong because the argument states that some people are deterred by the word imitation. Implying that it's possible some people are not deterred. So the argument already kind of concedes this point, so there's no way it could weaken the argument.

Using the logic lessons from core curriculum. "Some" means at least one. So if at least one person is deterred by the word imitation, and at least one person isn't deterred by the word imitation...I mean that just kind of makes sense?

tahurrrrr

Ooh! I think I found a good explanation @Na-leh2021 . Copy/pasted from Powerscore:

Answer choice (A): The author is primarily concerned with motivating people to eat healthier diets; an additional benefit for manufacturers would not weaken the argument.

Answer choice (B): If “lite” butter will soon be even lower in butterfat, this choice would actually strengthen the author’s argument in favor of the term “lite.”

Answer choice (C): The word “some” is quite weak—it means “one or more,” so this choice provides that there is at least one person who is not deterred by the term imitation—not much effect either way.

Answer choice (D): The argument in the stimulus concerns the use of the term “lite” and its possible tendency to get people to eat less butterfat. The fact that cholesterol is one of many contributing factors does not weaken the author’s argument.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. If the “imitation” label actually drives the majority of people to even lower butterfat products, that seems like a pretty good reason to keep that label, rather than switching to “lite.”

In depth explanation RE: C vs. E

In answer C, telling us that some people are not deterred from eating imitation butter does nothing to weaken the claim that we should change the name to deal with the many people who are deterred. "Some are not" is consistent with "many are", and so has no impact on it. It could still be a good thing overall to change the name so that many people might now choose a lower butterfat content product.

Meanwhile, answer E tells us something completely different, that most people currently avoiding imitation butter are choosing something that is better for them due to lower butterfat content. That means that if we change the name and make it more appealing to them, we run the risk of actually enticing them to eat the less healthy product. The whole argument to change the name was about encouraging lower fat content in our diets, and this answer would have the opposite result! So it's not that these two answers are the same except for those two words, but that they differ substantively in what they are describing. Even changing answer C to a "most" answer wouldn't make it good, because it wouldn't hurt the health claim in the argument.

Ashley2018-1

I don't like that explanation for C. Believe me, I already looked at the explanations before coming here. Just saying the answer choice is "weak" isn't enough for me since this is a weaken question and even tipping the scales a little is supposed to be enough. Could someone else pitch in?

tahurrrrr

C does absolutely nothing to weaken the argument. The point is that manufacturers should be able to change to the name lite butter.

C literally restates the present situation. Some people are deterred by the word "imitation" and some people aren't. How does that speak to whether or not manufacturers should be able to use the name "lite butter". Unless some people not being deterred by the name "imitation butter" implies that all people will choose anything that says "lite butter," C doesn't have a chance of working. And you just can't make that assumption.

That's the best alternate perspective I can come up with. Any other LSAT wizards out there wanna help us out?