Three-year-old Sara and her playmate

Answer choices

1. A

   Wrong Flaw9% picked this

   presupposes what it sets out to

   When an answer says the the premise restated or presumed the truth of the conclusion, it's referring to the famous Circular Reasoning flaw (which is wrong 99% of the time we see it). A circular argument would sound like "Sara definitely doesn't have strep. She might have any number of conditions, but there's no way strep is one of them." Circular Arguments have no evidence. This argument has distinct premises about Michael, his illness, and the connection to Sara's illness.

   9%
2. B

   Wrong Flaw7% picked this

   mistakes the cause of a particular phenomenon for the effect of

   This answer is always wrong. It relates to the famous Causal Flaw, in which an author overconfidently interprets something as one specific causal relationship, when other possible explanations exist. When we're pointing out the possibility of other explanations, our wording should sound tentative, like "fails to consider that the purported cause might actually be the result of the purported effect". It's always wrong to say to the author, "WE know what it REALLY is. You mistook cause for effect."

   7%
3. C

   Out of Scope Comparison: acute1% picked this

   fails to distinguish between acute streptococcal infections on the one hand, and less severe streptococcal

   The problem with the argument wasn't a failure to consider acute vs. less severe strep. It was just going from saying "Sara probably has what Michael has", to "Sara definitely doesn't have strep".

   1%
4. D

   Correct79% picked this

   treats evidence that the conclusion is probably true as if that evidence establishes the certainty

   Why this is right

   Given that Michael doesn't have strep and that Sara probably has what Michael has, we can validly conclude that Sara probably doesn't have strep. But the author treated the evidence as though we could conclude that Sara definitely doesn't have strep.

   Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   79%
5. E

   Wrong Flaw4% picked this

   makes a general claim based on particular examples that do not adequately represent the respective groups that they

   This describes the famous Sampling Flaw, and it seems like it fell off a truck and landed here in Q1. Does the conclusion make a general claim? Not at all; it makes a very specific claim about Sara's illness. Is the evidence about particular unrepresentative exemplars of a group? Not at all; it is just about Michael.

   4%