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Answer choices

1. A

   Too Weak / No Impact11% picked this

   It overlooks the possibility that at least some of the new Popelka Auto Insurance policyholders surveyed reported that they saved little or no money

   When a Flaw answer begins with Fails to consider / Overlooks the possibility, we're evaluating whether it's feeding us a good objection (a good Weaken idea). You almost never get correct Weaken ideas with weak-sauce language like "at least some", which means "at least one customer said they saved little or no money". Since we're dealing with an average, we're not concerned when there are data points that don't match the average. They don't have to all match. That's not what average means. However, if this answer said that most of the people who switched didn't save hundreds, that actually would Weaken. The author's conclusion is saying "most people who switch would save hundreds" is assuming that in the survey "most people who switched saved hundreds". But in reality, we only know the average savings was hundreds. That could be the result of most people saving nothing and a small minority saving thousands. That would definitely weaken the conclusion.

   11%
2. B

   Irrelevant Comparison6% picked this

   It takes for granted that the new Popelka Auto Insurance policyholders pay no less for their auto insurance, on average, than do people who

   Do we care whether new Popelka users pay more or less than long-time users? No, because the argument is just comparing new Popelka users to non-Popelka users. The author isn't assuming anything about long-time Popelka users.

   6%
3. C

   No Impact11% picked this

   It fails to address adequately the possibility that switching to another insurance company would enable many auto insurance policyholders to save even more money

   The author's conclusion doesn't promise that "if you switch to Popelka, you'll be getting the best deal in town!" It just says "most people would save hundreds". So if there's some 3rd company that many people would save thousands by switching to, fine. That wouldn't make the author's conclusion any less true. If most people would save hundreds, his argument wins. It's also useful to remember that the conclusion is about "most people" saving hundreds by switching. That leaves room for plenty of exceptions. "Many people" might have to pay much more by switching, and the conclusion might still be true.

   11%
4. D

   Opposite: underestimated2% picked this

   It takes for granted that few if any of the Popelka Auto Insurance policyholders surveyed underestimated how much they saved when they switched

   This could be a valid assumption if we said overestimated. If most people in the survey overestimated how much they were paying, (they said $250/yr, but it's really like $80/yr), then the author's conclusion would be badly weakened. He would then have to concede that most people who switched would only save around $80. So this argument does need to assume that the survey doesn't give an artificially high average savings. But if we negated this answer, to test whether it is an Assumption, we'd be saying "actually, a sizable number of people surveyed underestimated how much they save. In reality, they save more than $250 / yr." That would help the author's conclusion. When we negate an actual Assumption, it hurts the author's conclusion.

   2%
5. E

   Correct70% picked this

   It fails to address adequately the possibility that people capable of saving hundreds of dollars by switching their auto insurance coverage to Popelka are

   Why this is right

   This gets at the self-selecting Sampling flaw. Maybe motorcyclists save hundreds by getting insured by Popelka, whereas normal car drivers don't save much. In this case, a survey of new Popelka users would be full of motorcyclists who were motivated to switch to Popelka. There wouldn't be that many car drivers, because the fact that they don't save much money by switching means they don't have an incentive to switch.

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

   70%