Logical Reasoning

PT134 · S3 · Q24 If one wants to succeed

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If one wants to succeed, then one should act as though one were genuinely confident about one's abilities, even if one actually distrusts one's skills.

Conclusion

If you want to succeed, you should act like you're genuinely confident in yourself, even if you're not.

Evidence

Success comes more easily to people who are genuinely confident than to people who are only faking it.

Evaluation

Sorry, what? Didn't the author just contradict himself? She said we should fake having genuine confidence, because people with genuine confidence do better than fakers.

She must be thinking that we'll fake it 'til we make it.

Goal

Look for an answer resolving this nearly contradictory advice. So long as we are fakers, we're going to have a harder time obtaining success, so this answer needs to get us from faker to a higher level of success.

24.

Which one of the following statements, if true, most strengthens the argument?

  1. Those who convince others that

    Out of Scope: convincing others

    This answer doesn't help us understand why we should fake being confident, if fakers don't do as well as genuinely confident people. And the notion of others being convinced was not talked about before, so it's unclear how convincing others relates to success.

    5% picked this

  2. Correct

    Genuine confidence is often a

    Why this is right

    This reconciles the author's advice for fakers with her premise about fakers. Faking confidence often leads to possessing genuine confidence, which then makes it easier to obtain success.

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

    77% picked this

  3. Success is usually more a

    Opposite

    Since the author is offering advice that assumes that success depends to some extend on confidence, being told that "success is actually usually more a matter of things that aren't confidence" is going away from the author.

    3% picked this

  4. Many people who behave in

    No Impact

    We probably already had the sense that many people out there acting self-confidently are genuine, many are fakers (since the author allowed for both possibilities). So it seems like this answer is telling us nothing we didn't already know. This doesn't help us in any way to understand why self-doubting people should still pretend like they're self-confident.

    11% picked this

  5. Self-doubt can hamper as well

    Mixed Impact

    This does address the group we're concerned about — the self-doubters who are faking having genuine confidence. This answer doesn't reassure us that somehow their faking will do them well, because it gives a muddled idea that their self-doubt will do some good and some bad.

    4% picked this

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