Advertisement: A leading economist

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsFlaw

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Stimulus

Advertisement: A leading economist has determined that among people who used computers at their place of employment last year, those who also owned portable (“laptop”) computers earned 25 percent more on average than those who did not. It laptop computer led to a higher-paying job.

What this question is testing

Flaw

Your task

Describe the reasoning error the argument actually commits.

Common trap

Answers that name a real logical flaw the argument doesn't actually make.

Winning move

Articulate the gap in the reasoning yourself, then match it to the choice that describes that gap.

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

The question

14.

Which one of the following identifies a reasoning error in

Answer choices

Not Sampling18% picked this
It attempts to support a sweeping generalization on the basis of information about only a
This describes one of the 10 famous flaws, Sampling, in which we criticize the sample the author relies on for being too small, biased, or unrepresentative in some way. This answer doesn't match since sample size doesn't appear to be small. It's all people who used computers at their place of employment last year. That's at least 100 people, not "a small number of individuals".
18%
Not Circular7% picked this
Its conclusion merely restates a claim made earlier in
This describes one of the 10 famous flaws, Circular Reasoning, in which the premise restates the conclusion or requires the conclusion to be true. This answer is almost never correct. The conclusion here is that "owning a laptop led to a higher paying job". That was never stated earlier in the argument.
7%
Correct72% picked this
It concludes that one thing was caused by another although the evidence given is consistent with the first
Why this is right
This describes one of the 10 famous flaws, Causal Flaws, in which we criticize an author for overconfidently concluding one possible causal explanation for something, even though other possible causal explanations exist. In this answer, it's specifically citing the possibility of Reverse Causality. The evidence (the correlation) could also be read as saying, "Getting a higher paying job leads you to buy a laptop".
Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
72%
Not Self-Contradiction1% picked this
It offers information as support for a conclusion when that information actually shows that the
This describes one of the 10 famous flaws, Self Contradiction, in which the premise restates the conclusion or requires the conclusion to be true. This answer is almost never correct. The premise (the first sentence) definitely does not contradict the conclusion.
1%
No Prediction2% picked this
It uncritically projects currently existing trends indefinitely into
The conclusion is in the past tense. The author isn't making any predictions.
2%

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