Logical Reasoning

PT134 · S1 · Q10 History provides many examples

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History provides many examples of technological innovations being strongly resisted by people whose working conditions without those innovations were miserable.

Conclusion

Social inertia is a more powerful than a desire for comfort/safety, as a determinant of human behavior.

Evidence

History provides lots of examples of technological innovations being resisted by people whose working conditions were miserable without those innovations.

Evaluation

This premise is saying, The author thinks that I'm resisting it because I'm used to how things are (inertia), and I care more about keeping things as is than I do about improving the comfort / safety of my workplace.

Are we convinced that these employees resisted technological innovations because they didn't want to switch up their routine? They wanted to keep things going as is, even if status quo is less comfortable or safe?

What's the most common sense reason why an employee would resist a technological innovation?

Probably because they're afraid that the technology will replace them, and they'll be out of a job (#YangGang).

Goal

Look for an answer that suggests a different reason why the employees are resisting technological change (besides the author's idea that they just want things to stay the way they are). Or look for an answer that suggests that people care more about comfort / safety than they do about keeping things the way they are.

10.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the reasoning in the argument?

  1. Correct

    People correctly believe that technological

    Why this is right

    This provides an alternate reason for why employees have historically resisted technological innovations. This answer even adds the modifier "correctly" so that we take this alternative hypothesis even more seriously.

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

    72% picked this

  2. People are often reluctant to

    Opposite

    This strengthens the author's notion that people are vulnerable to inertia, and resist change.

    4% picked this

  3. Some examples of technological innovation

    No Impact / Too Weak: some

    A ton of Weaken questions involve evidence that is imperfect: correlations / trends / generalizations / averages. These things have exceptions. Our author just says that there are many examples of people resisting technological innovation. He never promised that people always resist technological innovation, so pointing out that "at least once" people embraced technological innovation has minimal, if any, impact on the conversation.

    9% picked this

  4. People tend to adapt easily

    Unclear Impact

    In the sense that this answer presents people adapting to technological innovations, it goes against his evidence, in which people are reluctant to embrace technological innovations. But, this also says gradually implemented innovations. This actually strengthens the author's notion that people have a strong sense of inertia and thus that any changes we wish to make must be slowly rolled out.

    10% picked this

  5. People correctly believe that technological

    No Impact / Opposite

    Increasing productivity isn't logically connected to caring more about inertia or caring more about safety / comfort. If anything, though, we would stretch increased productivity to mean more comfort, and so if people correctly believe that technological innovation will bring more comfort (increased productivity = less work to produce a given amount of output), then this would Strengthen the author's conclusion. Since people are opposing these innovations, it would look like they're prioritizing something above increased comfort.

    4% picked this

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