Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Medium

PT127 S2 Q16 Explanation

In order to expand

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

TopicsPrinciple-Strengthen

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Stimulus

In order to expand its mailing lists for e-mail advertising, the Outdoor Sports Company has been offering its customers financial incentives if they provide the e-mail addresses of their friends. However, offering such incentives is an unethical business practice, because it encourages profit, which risks damaging the integrity of those relationships.

What this question is testing

Principle-Strengthen

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence 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
16.

Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the reasoning

Answer choices

  1. Wrong Outcomes10% picked this

    It is unethical for people to exploit their personal relationships for profit if in doing so they risk damaging

    This assigns ethical judgment to the customers, while the conclusion of the argument assigns ethical judgment to the companies offering such financial incentives.

  2. Wrong Trigger1% picked this

    If it would be unethical to use information that was gathered in a particular way, then it is unethical to gather that

    The ethics of using information gathered in a particular way is not the same as risking damage to the integrity of personal relationships.

  3. Wrong Trigger10% picked this

    It is an unethical business practice for a company to deliberately damage the integrity of its customers' personal

    Deliberately damaging the integrity of its customers’ personal relationships is not the same as risking damage to those relationships.

  4. Correct75% picked this

    It is unethical to encourage people to engage in behavior that could damage the integrity

    Why this is right

    This bridges the gap between RDIR → ~E risking damage to the integrity of their customers relationships and a business practice which is unethical.

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

  5. Supports a Premise5% picked this

    Providing a friend's personal information to a company in exchange for a financial reward will almost certainly damage the integrity of one's

    This supports the premise but does not support the argument’s reasoning since it does not link the evidence to the conclusion.

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