All laundry detergents

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct84% picked this

   Laundry detergents that are advertised as ecologically friendly contain much lower amounts of surfactants, on average, than

   Why this is right

   Does this help us argue, "We have some grounds for hoping that eco-friendly detergents are less damaging"? Sure! We know surfactants can be harmful, so if eco-friendly detergents have less of that harmful stuff, then there is reason to suppose that they are less harmful to the environment.

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

   84%
2. B

   Strengthens, if anything4% picked this

   There is no reason to suppose that most of the ingredients in laundry detergents not advertised as ecologically

   One of our possible objections was arguing, "Sure, we don't know what harm the other ingredients in eco-friendly detergents may do, but we DO know that the other ingredients in normal detergents do a lot of harm, so we do have reason to think normal detergents are more harmful." This is actually the opposite of that objection, so it would have more of a strengthening effect. It makes the normal detergents sound more harmless, which makes it harder for us to argue that the eco-friendly detergents will be less harmful.

   4%
3. C

   Weaker Impact6% picked this

   Different kinds of laundry detergents contain different kinds of surfactants, which differ in the degree to which they

   This definitely weakens somewhat, because it raises doubt about whether it's fair to equalize normal and eco-friendly detergents by saying, "Well, they both have surfactants." With (A), we were objecting, "Yes, they both have surfactants, but not in the same quantity!" With (C), we'd be objecting, "Yes, they both have surfactants, but not equally harmful types of surfactants!" This answer could be correct if nothing else was stronger, but (A) is stronger because it specifically tells us that normal detergents have the higher (thus more harmful) level of surfactants in them. This answer doesn't specify whether normal detergents or eco-friendly ones have the more harmful type of surfactants. So it has unclear impact. It does raise the possibility that normal detergents have a worse form of surfactants, but that's not as strong as (A), which specifically attaches a negative to normal detergents.

   6%
4. D

   Unclear Impact4% picked this

   There is reason to suppose that ingredients in laundry detergents other than surfactants harm the environment

   This doesn't allow us to compare eco-friendly to normal detergents, because it doesn't call out any difference between them. It lets us know that the other ingredients could really matter, but it isn't giving us any information about those other ingredients. Are these potentially more-harmful ingredients found only in normal detergents (weakens), only in eco-friendly (strengthens), or both (strengthens)? Without knowing more about how this answer relates to our head-to-head comparison, it has no clear impact.

   4%
5. E

   Strengthens2% picked this

   Laundry detergents advertised as environmentally friendly are typically less effective than other detergents, so that larger

   This is sort of the inverse of (A). Regardless of the unknown effects of the other ingredients, we know that eco-friendly (like normal) detergents have surfactants, which can be harmful. If use of eco-friendly detergents requires larger amounts, then that suggests that using eco-friendly detergents involves larger amounts of surfactants, which inherently seems worse for the environment.

   2%