Logical Reasoning

PT23 · S3 · Q16 Research indicates that college

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Research indicates that college professors generally were raised in economically advantaged households.

Conclusion (research indicates that)

College professors generally were raised in economically advantaged households.

Evidence (For)

Overall, college professors grew up in communities whose avg household income was higher than the national avg household income.

Evaluate

This argument is making a fairly simple move from to "raised in an economically advantaged household".

So it's assuming,

Does this have to be true? Well, a rich neighborhood can still have some 'poor' households. You might live in a very modest 2 bedroom house even though the rest of the neighborhood is mansions.

We could certainly argue that it's still an economic advantage to grow up with rich neighbors, even if your family isn't as rich, but this author seems to be equating .

In that sense, the author is committing a Whole to Part flaw. Because the collective neighborhood has the trait of "economically advantaged", the author assumes that each household unit in that neighborhood has the trait of "economically advantaged".

Goal

Look for an answer calling out the flawed Whole to Part move, or making the objection that .

16.

The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument

inappropriately assumes a correlation between
Not Inappropriate
Our author does seem to be jumping from Evidence about "household income" to a Conclusion about "economic advantage". She seems to assume a relationship; I'm not in love with calling it a correlation but correlations are a type of relationship. I think the bigger problem with this answer is that LSAC wouldn't expect us to chastise an author for assuming that "more income" is an "economic advantage". Of course it is! That's a very legitimate assumption. LSAC wants us to be objecting, "Just because they grew up in rich neighborhoods doesn't mean THEY were rich", not objecting "Just because you have more money doesn't mean you have an economic advantage".
36% picked this
fails to note there are
Not an Objection
We couldn't possibly weaken this argument by saying, "Oh, author --- there is at least one affluent neighborhood where no college professors grew up". That would only weaken the author if she had been thinking that "every single affluent neighborhood has a future-professor growing up there". She was just saying "overall, (on average ... but obviously with some exceptions), college professors grew up in more affluent neighborhoods". This isn't a conditional claim, but if it were, it would be saying College prof ? grew up in $$ neighborhood This answer choice is acting like the argument was saying $$ neighborhood ? College prof grew up there
2% picked this
Correct
presumes without justification that college
Why this is right
The author is assuming that the households in which the professors grew up were economically advantaged in the way that their neighborhoods were. In other words, the author assumes that "if you grew up in an affluent neighborhood, then you grew up in an affluent household". If we negated this assumption, it would weaken: college professors generally were raised in households with incomes that were lower than average for their communities. That negation gives us our original objection: you can grow up in a rich neighborhood but be relatively poor. You can have the 2-bedroom home in a community full of mansions. The professors's households might have been atypically poor for their neighborhoods, but our author is assuming those households were representative of the average income for that neighborhood (or even richer than the average for that neighborhood).
Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
58% picked this
does not take into account
Not an Objection
Can we weaken this argument by saying "college professors generally have lower salaries than their private sector counterparts"? Who are the private sector counterparts of a college professor? We're talking about professors at public universities making less than professors at private universities? That doesn't seem like an Objection. It's somewhat tempting, since "lower salaries" goes in our Anti-Conclusion direction of "not economically advantaged households". But the conclusion is talking about whether or not professors grew up in an economically advantaged household, not whether they currently live in an economically advantaged household. The argument isn't claiming that professors themselves are currently economically advantaged, so it doesn't weaken to say that their salaries are "lower". Also, saying "this professor makes less than that professor" doesn't show that either professor makes little money. A military doctor might make less than a private sector doctor, but both types of doctors make enough money that relative to the general population we would think of them as economically advantaged.
0% picked this
fails to take into account
Not an Objection
The author's evidence is about where college professors grew up, not where they currently live. The argument isn't claiming or assuming anything about whether professors are currently economically advantaged or currently live in affluent communities. Beyond that, it wouldn't be an objection even if this answer dealt with the professors' upbringing, because the author was never guaranteeing that every single professor grew up in an affluent community, just that overall professors grew up in more affluent than average communities. A generalization like that allows for "many" exceptions.
3% picked this

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