Logical Reasoning

PT141 · S2 · Q2 Jeneta: Increasingly, I've noticed

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

Jeneta: Increasingly, I've noticed that when a salesperson thanks a customer for making a purchase, the customer also says "Thank you" instead of saying "You're welcome."

Given that ...

We say "you're welcome" when a friend says "thank you for doing me that favor".

Why is it that ...

We say "thank you" when a cashier says "thank you for your purchase"?

Evaluate / Goal

We need a way to differentiate these two situations so that it makes sense why in a store we reciprocate a "thank you" with our own "thank you", whereas with friends we reciprocate a "thank you" with a "you're welcome".

While it's usually dangerous to predict answers to Paradox, this one seems fairly normal to understand from normal life.

With a friend for whom we've done a favor, they've gotten benefit but we haven't (other than the fuzzy feeling of doing something nice for a friend).

But when you make a purchase at a store, the cashier has benefited by getting your money and you have benefited by getting the product you just purchased. So maybe we say "thank you" because we appreciate the product we're receiving, or maybe the salesperson helped us find the right product or did something else to benefit us.

2.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain the discrepancy that Jeneta observes in people’s responses?

  1. Customers regard themselves as doing

    Deepens Paradox

    This makes the store and the friend situations more similar. We need a way to distinguish them. When we've done a friend a favor, we regard ourselves as having done them a favor (obvi), so we say "you're welcome". If we regard purchases similarly as doing the salesperson a favor, then we would seemingly also say "you're welcome".

    4% picked this

  2. Salespeople are often instructed by

    No Distinction / No Impact

    This provides no distinction between the store scenario and the friend scenario. In the store, we are free to say what we want (we can say "thank you", "you're welcome", or anything we choose). Okay, but in the friend scenario we are also free to say what we want. So since that doesn't present any distinction between the two situations, it doesn't offer a way to explain why we say "thank you" in one situation but "you're welcome" in the other.

    1% picked this

  3. Salespeople do not regard customers

    Unrelated to Goal

    This answer would explain why a friend would say "Thanks!" when we've done them a favor but a salesperson wouldn't say "Thanks" when we've made a purchase. But in both cases, the friend and the salesperson do say "Thanks", so the question still remains why our response to one is different from our response to the other. The correct answer should be about the customer, not the salesperson.

    3% picked this

  4. The way that people respond

    No Distinction

    This answer applies to both the store and the friend situation similarly. In both cases, we are responding to being thanked, and so in both cases our response will be determined by habit. But why do we have a habit of saying "thank you" to salespeople and saying "you're welcome" to friends?

    9% picked this

  5. Correct

    In a commercial transaction, as

    Why this is right

    This provides a distinction; it even spells out the fact that in the case of doing someone a favor you do not feel mutual benefit. The benefit is one-sided. You helped your friend move apartments. They benefited a lot. You worked your butt off. So you say "you're welcome" when they thank you because it's asymmetric. When you give the salesperson your money and he gives you an Xbox, you feel like you just benefited, so you express your gratitude for your new Xbox by saying "Thank you".

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

    82% 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