Logical Reasoning

PT154 · S4 · Q5 Professor: During election years, voters

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Professor: During election years, voters often feel that they are insufficiently informed about election issues.

Given that...

Some people subscribe to newspapers that provide extensive coverage of election issues.

How can it be that...

Studies show that they are no better informed about election issues than subscribers to newspapers that have very little coverage of these issues.

Evaluate

This question is comparing two groups of newspaper subscribers. One group subscribes to newspapers that provide extensive coverage of election issues. The other group subscribes to newspapers that have very little coverage of election issues. We would expect the first group to be better informed about these issues. But surprisingly, studies show that they aren't better informed.

Goal

Expect a correct answer to provide an additional fact about the first group which would get in the way of them being better informed, even if they subscribe to papers offering more extensive coverage of the issues.

5.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain the surprising fact stated by the professor?

  1. The newspapers that provide extensive

    Irrelevant Distinction

    The number of people in each group doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if there are 10 subscribers in one group and 10,000 in the other, or if there are exactly the same number in each group. Either way, it's still possible for the subscribers in one group to be better informed than the other, or to not be better informed. The size of each group doesn't help to explain why one group is not better informed when we can reasonably expect them to be.

    3% picked this

  2. Many newspapers that once provided

    Unclear Impact

    This answer choice is tempting if you're thinking that both groups are well informed about the issues. Maybe the second group—the people who subscribe to papers that have very little coverage of election issues—are all reading papers that once provided extensive coverage. And maybe that change in coverage only happened recently, so these people are still well informed. The problem is that this scenario relies on a lot of "maybes," and we aren't told that any of these "maybes" are actually true. Without that additional information, it's unclear if this answer is actually relevant.

    1% picked this

  3. Correct

    Most regular subscribers to the

    Why this is right

    Did you notice that the stimulus repeatedly mentioned "subscribers" and not "readers?" Nothing in the stimulus stated that either group actually reads the newspapers that they subscribe to. Maybe they read parts of the paper, just not those boring articles about election issues. That would be enough to explain the lack of a difference between the two groups. Maybe these people just skip to the sports page, then do the crossword puzzle.

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

    90% picked this

  4. Many of the voters who

    No Impact

    This is referring to a statement in the first sentence which isn't actually part of the paradox that we're trying to explain. The paradox involves people who do subscribe to newspapers. This fact about people who don't subscribe doesn't help explain the paradox.

    1% picked this

  5. Most voters get the majority

    Unclear Impact

    We don't know which group of newspaper subscribers this answer choice applies to. It could apply equally to both groups of subscribers—maybe both groups subscribe to newspapers but get their information elsewhere. Or this might not apply to either group. Without more information, it's not clear how this would explain anything.

    4% picked this

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