To discover what percentage

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

TopicsPrinciple-Conform

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Stimulus

To discover what percentage of teenagers believe in telekinesis-the psychic ability to move objects without physically touching them-a recent survey asked a representative sample of teenagers whether they agreed with the following statement: "A person's thoughts can influence the movement of physical objects." But because this statement naturalistic, uncontroversial interpretation, the survey's responses are also ambiguous.

What this question is testing

Principle-Conform

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

The reasoning above conforms most closely to which one of the following

Answer choices

Too Strong2% picked this
Uncontroversial statements are useless in
Too Strong: useless Bad Evidence / Conclusion Match The author is concluding that the survey's responses are ambiguous, which is much stronger and not quite the same as concluding that the statement asked about was useless.
2%
Bad Evidence Match2% picked this
Every statement is amenable to several
If we're saying that "every statement is ambiguous (open to several interpretations)", then that sort of implies that any responses to any survey that consist of statements would be ambiguous. So in a sense this answer still matches what the conclusion is getting at. But the premise wasn't saying every statement is ambiguous, just that the one the researchers used in their survey was ambiguous. If a principle is too broad or too strong, then we can't fairly say it conformed to (matched) the reasoning.
2%
Illegal Negation3% picked this
Responses to surveys are always unambiguous if the survey's questions are
This answer choice is a "flipped lightswitch" trap answer of the author's actual reasoning (negated logic). This answer is saying. If ... Then ... question is responses are not ambiguous not ambiguous The argument was saying If ... Then ... question is responses are ambiguous ambiguous
3%
Correct91% picked this
Responses people give to poorly phrased questions are likely to
Why this is right
This is far from perfect, but it seems to be the best available. It's making a soft move like this, If ... Then .. question is responses poorly phrased likely ambiguous That's our best match for the argument, If ... Then ... question is responses are ambiguous ambiguous
Skill tested: Principle-Conform · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
91%
Bad Conclusion Match2% picked this
Statements about psychic phenomena can always be given
This answer makes it seem like the conclusion is "Therefore, the statement can be interpreted naturalistically. But the conclusion was, "Therefore, the responses to the statement will be ambiguous".
2%

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