For a television program about astrology, investigators went into the

Conclusion: Your signs influences your personality.
Premise: Twenty volunteers on the street were Geminis and more sociable/extroverted than average

This argument is assuming that there isn't some other reason the people chosen were more sociable/extroverted than average.
---> Was the sample representative of Gemini population in general?

(A) We don't care who scored/administered it, as long as the results are valid.

(B) This is about the judgment of astrologers, which is irrelevant here. We're doing science!

(C) This would prove that the investigators are good judges of character, not that astrology had anything to do with character.

(D) This is irrelevant. The investigators purposely found 20 geminis. It doesn't matter how many of them there were out on the street. If astrology affects personality, they could be the ONLY 20 geminis on the street.

(E) CORRECT. This provides another reason why the sample of people might have been more gregarious than average

All the volunteers belong to Gemini sign.
All volunteers are willing to be interviewed and to take personality test.
Test confirmed volunteers are more sociable & extroverted.
Hence investigators confirmed birth signs influence one's personality.

But there is a serious problem with the subjects investigated. Isn't it a biased group for this personality test? Because the subjects are already sociable & extroverted, they agreed to participate and the opposite group would have not agreed to participate. So it is not the birth sign that influenced their personality. Yayyyyy

The premise claims that People born under the sign of Gemini will be more sociable and extroverted.

The option E says people who are not sociable and extroverted will not participate in investigation. Which weakens the argument, since people who volunteered are all sociable irrespective of the birth sign.

Ans: E

Other - more difficult - flaw could have been that interview didn't consider other people different sign with proportionality tested.

E is straight winner.

This question is a classic weaken question. There are multiples ways to undermine an argument among which we can mention *unrepresentative sample or any errors that may appear in data which support the conclusion *.

Premise : investigators went into the street and found twenty volunteers born under the sign of Gemini who were willing to be interviewed on the program and to take a personality test.

Premise : The test confirmed the investigators' personal impressions that each of the volunteers was more sociable and extroverted than people are on average

The conclusion is : one's astrological birth sign influence one's personality. The preceding words clearly show that all that was mentioned in the text is mentioned to claim the final sentence of the stimulus which is therefore the conclusion.

Answer A: one may think that if it’s not investigators who administered the test the data are flawed but thinking that way would be helping the argument which clearly did not state that. No information related to the ability of those who conducted the experiment is provided so we cannot conclude anything about the quality of data. So it neither undermines nor helps the argument. Out!

Answer B : actually this one strengthens the argument. Let’s say this another way: Gemini people are more sociable than any other astronomical signs. We can conclude that the astronomical sign plays one role in some sort on the behavior of people. Ouch! Out!

Answer C : This one is irrelevant because the point of the argument is not the impression investigators have on people but the relation between astrological signs of people and their behavior. Ouch! Out!

Answer D : Still irrelevant friendo. Why? Because the argument talks about the relationship between people behavior and their astronomical signs and not between astrological signs and the proportions in the population.

Answer E: If you made till here you are goat because you are right. This answer simply states that the sample is biased in some sort or unrepresentative of the population. Among Gemini only those who are extroverted and sociable participate. There may be some others Gemini who are not sociable and extroverted but we may never know because they do not participate to the experiment.

Mr nobody

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