Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Easy

PT101 S1 P1 Q3 Explanation

Risk Communication

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsLocate DetailScience

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Full official LSAT questions are available through LawHub. This page provides LSAT Lab's explanation, strategy, and review tools without republishing the full official question.

Passage

To many developers of technologies that affect public health or the environment, “risk communication” means persuading the public that the potential risks of such technologies are small and should be ignored. Those who communicate risks in this way seem to believe that lay people do not understand the actual nature of technological persuasive stance, many lay people see “risk communication” as a euphemism for brainwashing done by experts.

Since, however, the goal of risk communication should be to enable people to make informed decisions about technological risks, a clear understanding about how the public perceives risk is needed. Lay people’s definitions of “risk” are more likely to reflect subjective ethical concerns than are experts’ definitions. Lay people, for example, tend specific risks of electromagnetic fields produced by high-voltage power transmission well enough to make informed decisions.

Risk communication should therefore be based on the principle that people process new information in the context of their existing beliefs. If people know nothing about a topic, they will find messages about that topic incomprehensible. If they have erroneous beliefs, they are likely to misconstrue the messages. Thus, communicators need to balanced material that tells people what they need to know to make decisions about technological risks.

What this question is testing

Locate Detail

Anticipate

This is essentially a Locate Detail question — the passage gives the exact answer in P3. People with mistaken beliefs "are likely to misconstrue the messages." That means they'll filter the new info through their (wrong) framework and end up interpreting it differently than the communicator intended.

Goal

Looking for an answer that captures: lay people fit the new info into their existing (mistaken) framework and end up interpreting it differently than intended. Be wary of:

Optimistic answers — the passage doesn't say lay people will simply discard their old views

"Partial revision" answers the passage doesn't state

Extreme answers about further distorting and spreading misinformation

Answers about ignoring all communication

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
3.

According to the passage, it is probable that which one of the following will occur when risk communicators attempt to communicate with lay people who have mistaken

Answer choices

  1. Wrong View7% picked this

    The lay people, perceiving that the risk communicators have provided more-reliable information, will discard

    The passage doesn't describe lay people with mistaken beliefs as discarding those beliefs once they encounter new information. P3 says the opposite — they misconstrue the new messages. So an answer where they immediately revise their beliefs reverses the passage's claim.

  2. Unsupported2% picked this

    The lay people will only partially revise their ideas on the basis of

    The passage doesn't describe partial revision of beliefs. It describes misconstruing messages — interpreting them in light of existing beliefs — not partially updating those beliefs.

  3. Correct80% picked this

    The lay people, fitting the new information into their existing framework, will interpret the communication differently than the

    Why this is right

    P3 says: "If they have erroneous beliefs, they are likely to misconstrue the messages." Earlier in P3 the author says "people process new information in the context of their existing beliefs." Together those make exactly (C)'s claim: the lay people fit the new information into their existing framework and interpret it differently than the risk communicators intended.

    Skill tested: Locate Detail · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  4. Too Strong9% picked this

    The lay people, misunderstanding the new information, will further distort the information when they communicate it

    The passage doesn't describe lay people with mistaken beliefs further distorting and spreading the information. The misinterpretation it describes happens at the level of the recipient understanding the message, not in propagating it onward.

  5. Too Strong2% picked this

    The lay people will ignore any communication about a technology they

    The passage doesn't say lay people will ignore communication about risky technology. It says they'll process it through their existing beliefs and may misconstrue it. That's very different from ignoring it altogether.

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