If people refrained from being

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

TopicsRole

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Stimulus

If people refrained from being impolite to one another the condition of society would be greatly improved. But society would not be better off if the government enacted laws requiring people to be polite to create even more problems than does impoliteness.

What this question is testing

Role

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

14.

Which one of the following most accurately describes the role played in the argument by the claim that society would not be better off if the government enacted

Answer choices

Correct77% picked this
It is the conclusion drawn by the argument as
Why this is right
It is an opinion from the author that is supported by the 3rd sentence.
Skill tested: Role · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
77%
Wrong Role6% picked this
It is cited as evidence for the generalization that is the
It is the conclusion, it's not evidence for the conclusion.
6%
Wrong Role7% picked this
It is cited as evidence for the assertion used to support the
It is the conclusion; it's not evidence for an intermediate conclusion that supports the conclusion.
7%
Wrong Role6% picked this
It is cited as an illustration of a generalization that serves as the main premise
It's the conclusion. I don't know what to say (D). This is a mouthful, but what's in your mouth should be "conclusion".
6%
Wrong Role4% picked this
It describes a phenomenon that the conclusion of the argument purports
It is the conclusion. It's not describing the phenomenon that the conclusion tries to explain.
4%

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