Logical Reasoning

PT143 · S1 · Q24 Researcher: People who participate

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Researcher: People who participate in opinion surveys often give answers they believe the opinion surveyor expects to hear, and it is for this reason that some opinion surveys do not reflect the actual views of those being surveyed.

Conclusion (So)

If a survey is well constructed, survey respondents' desire to meet surveyors' expectations has no effect on the survey's results.

Evidence

Even though people often try to give answers that the surveyor expects to hear, in well-constructed surveys the questions are worded so as to provide respondents with no indication of which answers the surveyor might expect.

Evaluate

This is a pretty plausible argument so we might not have any organic reactions to it. Hence, we switch into Anti-Conclusion debate mode:

Given that ... the questions are worded so as to provide respondents with no indication of which answers the surveyor might expect,

How could it still be that ... respondents' desire to please the surveyor's expectations could still have some effect?

Maybe the respondents just come to their own conclusions about what answer they think would please the surveyor, and thus answer that way.

So even though the questions weren't designed to indicate a preferred answer, just like a Rorschach test, we can all see in it what we want to.

Goal

Look for an answer that addresses the possibility that even though the questions don't signal some preferred answer, the respondents desire to meet surveyors' expectations could still tilt the data somehow.

24.

The reasoning in the researcher's argument is questionable in that the argument overlooks the possibility that

  1. an opinion survey that disguises

    Irrelevant Objection

    If a survey is flawed in a way that doesn't relate to the surveyor's expectations, then that flaw doesn't relate to the conclusion.

    16% picked this

  2. when people who respond to

    Not an Objection

    This answer is talking about a type of person whose answers to a survey wouldn't be affected by a desire to say what the surveyor expects to hear. The author is trying to conclude that with this special type of survey the data won't be affected by the desire of respondents to meet surveyors' expectations. So this answer choice strengthens the conclusion, if anything.

    6% picked this

  3. many opinion surveyors have no

    Not an Objection

    The idea of what the surveyor expects to hear is totally new and out of scope. The author isn't going to be bothered by us saying, "Many surveyors have no expectations". In this well-constructed survey she's describing, she would expect the surveyors to have no expectations, since the questions are designed to have no expected answer.

    4% picked this

  4. some people who know what

    Inapplicable Objection

    This is talking about the behavior of some people who know what answer the surveyor is expecting. So this answer will be irrelevant to our analysis of a well-constructed survey, in which the questions provide no way to know which answer might be expected.

    7% picked this

  5. Correct

    the answers of opinion-survey respondents

    Why this is right

    Since the questions in a well-constructed survey provide no indication of which answer the surveyor might expect, any respondent who thinks, "Ah, they expect me to say X" has an unfounded belief. There is no indication, no support for what answer is expected. But if the respondents have an unfounded belief like, "Ah, they expect me to say X", then many respondents will say X out of their desire to meet the surveyors' expectations. And, thus, contrary to the author's conclusion, the desire to meet surveyors' expectations could still have an effect on the survey's results.

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

    67% picked this

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