Logical Reasoning

PT13 · S4 · Q22 In a survey of consumers

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

  • Save & drill this skill — build targeted practice sets from questions like this one

  • Video walkthroughs — watch every question solved step by step

  • 81 official LSATs — as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

Start practicing free

In a survey of consumers in an Eastern European nation, respondents were asked two questions about each of 400 famous Western brands: whether or not they recognized the brand name and whether or not they thought the products bearing that name were of high quality.

Survey

For each of 400 famous Western Brands 1. Do you recognize this brand name? 2. Do you think products bearing this brand name are of high quality?

The top 27 most recognized brands were brand available in the nation where the people were being surveyed. However, many of these top 27 had different rankings when it came approving of their quality.

Most of the other brands had recognition rankings that were a match for their approval rankings.

Evaluate

This question stem is very rare and curious. It is sort of like a Must Be False or a Principle-Weaken. We want to look for a principle that goes against this information.

Is there anything we should be inferring from the information? Hard to say. There is some math-y stuff at the end we might consider.

If the top rankings for recognition had approval ratings that sharply differed, we can almost think that many of the brands in the top 27 for brand recognition where in the bottom 27 for quality approval (not literally the bottom 27, but far from the top).

Meanwhile, most of the other brands had matching approval / recognition. So if something was ranked 50th on recognition, it was ranked around 50th in approval.

What I might wonder about then is, Some of them could be top 27 for recognition. Some of them could be mid-level for recognition. Some of them could even be low-level for recognition, though it would be weird for people to be like,

Goal

It's pretty hard to guess where the correct answer will go. If they are conditionals, and we're looking for one that this survey violates, we would want the information we have about the survey to match the trigger of the rule but fail to match the outcome of the rule.

22.

Which one of the following, if each is a principle about consumer surveys, is violated by the survey described?

  1. Correct

    Never ask all respondents a

    Why this is right

    This is a conditional rule that says, if a question cannot reasonably then you be answered by respondents ? shouldn't who make a particular response ask it of all to another question in the survey respondents Based on what we were told about the survey, could we say the trigger applies but the outcome doesn't? Yes, the 2nd question can't reasonably be answered by respondents who respond to the 1st question with the particular response of "no, I've never heard of brand X". The 2nd question would be saying, "Do you think the products bearing the name of Brand X are of high quality or not?" How could someone reasonably answer that question if they've never even heard of Brand X before? According to this principle, respondents shouldn't have been asked that 2nd question if their response to the first question was "never heard of it", but all the survey respondents were asked these two questions.

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

    63% picked this

  2. Never ask a question that

    Compatible

    Did this survey ask a question that is likely to generate a large variety of responses? No, not really. Since it asks two "whether or not" questions, the only variety in responses will be Yes or No. Furthermore, it doesn't seem like these responses are particularly difficult to group into a manageable number of categories. Since this principle doesn't apply to this survey, this survey can't be violating it.

    25% picked this

  3. Never ask all respondents a

    Compatible

    If we were violating this principle, it would mean that we asked the respondents a question that would force them to give up their anonymity in order to answer. Did either of the 2 survey questions force people to give up their anonymity? Not at all. 1. Have you ever heard of Pepsi? 2. Do you think Pepsi products are of high quality? Neither of those involves giving up your anonymity.

    1% picked this

  4. It is better to ask

    Compatible

    This survey seems to adhere to this principle. They asked the same 2 questions about 400 different products, rather than 400 different questions about the same 2 products.

    9% picked this

  5. It is best to ask

    Compatible

    If we were violating this principle, it would mean that we asked the respondents a question that they would fear they're giving the wrong answer to. Would either of the 2 survey questions cause people to fear they got the answer wrong? e.g. 1. Have you ever heard of Pepsi? 2. Do you think Pepsi products are of high quality? It doesn't make sense to think they would fear they're providing the wrong answer, since both of these are subjective questions. Only the person answering knows the "correct answer" to whether they're aware of a brand and what they perceive its quality to be.

    2% picked this

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

Save and practice this skill
LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free