A study attempting to link fertility with increased sexual

I burned 2:07 on this question and only got it using POE. I think we have to really pay attention to the wording of the question stem. The METHODOLOGY of the study is flawed because?...We should attack the method in which the study was carried out.

So, basically the strategy to tackle flaw question is this: the stimulus must be an argument. As such, it has premise(s) and conclusion. Then It must have an assumption, so is this assumption that you have to attack, weakening.

An assumption make the argument stronger. In flaw question you make the assumption more weaken. it is something quite similar to the reverse of finding the assumption question.

Be careful: it is different from weaken question because: this attack the assumption, instead in weaken question you basically attack the conclusion though not in isolated manner but relating the latter with the premise(s) of the stimulus.

For these reasons, for these layers of reasoning in a single question Cr is difficult and needs more practice than Sc for instance.

So, back to the question:

Conclusion: A study attempting to link fertility with increased sexual availability concluded that women unconsciously dress more attractively during ovulation.

Stimulus: The study was conducted using pairs of photographs of 200 women and volunteer viewers who chose the photograph in which they thought the woman appeared more attractive. Researchers found that 67% of the time viewers chose the photo taken when the woman was ovulating.

1) The study fails to specify what is meant by the word attractive, leaving it up to the opinion of the individual viewer.

Nope. it says that the viewers thought what is the word attractive, at least for them. opinion and thoughts could be different

2)Because all the viewers were male, the results of the study were skewed by individual responses to attractive women.

This basically sayas that the study was biased. Maybe or not........we are not sure

3)The study fails to account for the psychological complexity of sexual desire in women

This seems good. Because the conclusion says that the women are unconsciously but here we read that they are and the women's desire is complex and also we know that during ovulation, women have MORE desire

4) The study assumes that women will dress more attractively when they have greater sexual desire.

This is our assumption but we want the assumption but something more: we want weaken the assumption, we do not want the asumption itself

5)Most women do not know when they are ovulating, and so would not dress more attractively on that day.

We already know it from the stem

For me C is the answer.

Got a PM to respond to this and I oblige

Understanding the Passage

Conclusion: women unconsciously dress more attractively during ovulation

Premises:

Basically, two photos of each of the 200 women were taken: one in which the women was ovulating and one in which she was not.

These photos were shown to the volunteers to select one photo from each of the pair of photos - selected photo is more attractive.

It was found that 67% of the time volunteers chose those photos in which the woman was ovulating.

Based on this, the researchers thought this increased attractiveness must be the result of dressing sense. So, they thought women unconsciously dress attractively during ovulation.

Prethinking

As we saw above that the authors made the assumption that the increased attractiveness during ovulation period is the result of better dressing sense.

I think if we spend some more time prethinking, we can probably find some more assumptions but ler's directly move to the option statements.

Analysis of option statements

Question Stem: The methodology of the study above is flawed for which of the following reasons?

(A) The study fails to specify what is meant by the word attractive, leaving it up to the opinion of the individual viewer. - This seems interesting. If different individual viewers had different perceptions of attractiveness, then they would have rated the photos using their own different parameters of attractiveness. Given that attractiveness is such a vague word, different people would probably have very different conceptions of attractiveness. If this so, the data that 67% of people preferred photos of woman taken during their ovulation period, becomes doubtful. But I am not really sure of this answer choice because the conclusion also uses this term "attractiveness", so probably the researchers are not really concerned about the different perceptions of attractiveness. Let's keep this option aside. This may or may not be the answer.

(B) Because all the viewers were male, the results of the study were skewed by individual responses to attractive women. - As we understood in the passage analysis, the viewers were shown two photos of each women and they had to pick one photo of each women. They didn't have to select one woman over other. Therefore, this option is incorrect.

(C) The study fails to account for the psychological complexity of sexual desire in women - This is going way off the mark. Even if this option makes some sense, it only impacts the conclusion. The question stem specifically asks for a question stem that finds the flaw with the methodology. Therefore, this option is incorrect.

(D) The study assumes that women will dress more attractively when they have greater sexual desire. - When do women have greater sexual desire? during ovulation? I don't know and neither can GMAT expect candidates to know this. Given the use of these terms, this goes off the track. Therefore, this option is incorrect.

(E) Most women do not know when they are ovulating, and so would not dress more attractively on that day. - This is interesting and I see that a lot of students on the forum have marked this as the answer. This looks tempting at the face of it. But it is incorrect. Two reasons: First, the conclusion specifically says that women unconsciously dress more attractively. Therefore, the conclusion cannot be impacted by this statement - the conclusion basically doesn't assume that women know when they are ovulating. Second reason is that we have to find a flaw in the methodology, not the conclusion.

So, after this analysis, we find that only one contender is left i.e. Option A. So, that is the correct answer.
Hope this helps

Thanks,
Chiranjeev

still cannot understand why A? Anybody can provide a further clarification , please ?

Hi TheNona,

The logic for A is:
Premise: O (ovulating) = A (Attractive)
Conclusion: O = A* (dress attractively)
Wrong logic: A* maybe different from A, or A* is only a subcategory of A.

Now, I will apply the logic above for the question:

Premise 1: volunteers will choose photos of ATTRACTIVE women.
Premise 2: 67% of volunteers picked photos of women who are ovulating.
Conclusion: Ovulating makes women DRESS ATTRACTIVELY.

You see the flaw, "ATTRACTIVE" does not mean "DRESS ATTRACTIVELY". For example, Volunteers chose photos of attractive women because women's skin is more beautiful when they are ovulating.

I saw many people chose E, indeed after used POE, I narrowed down to A & E.
But E is not correct because E says: don't know ovulating --> wouldn't dress attractively. The logic SEEMS to indicate that if women know they're ovulating, they would dress attractively. --> "Ovulating" leads to "dress attractively".
So E maybe supports the author's conclusion, not undermines it. Between A & E, clearly E is not a solid answer. --> I eliminate E.

A study attempting to link fertility with increased sexual availability concluded that women unconsciously dress more attractively during ovulation. The study was conducted using pairs of photographs of 200 women and volunteer viewers who chose the photograph in which they thought the woman appeared more attractive. Researchers found that 67% of the time viewers chose the photo taken when the woman was ovulating.

The methodology of the study above is flawed for which of the following reasons?

(A) The study fails to specify what is meant by the word attractive, leaving it up to the opinion of the individual viewer. Cannot take a holistic decision depending on the opinion of a cohort
(B) Because all the viewers were male, the results of the study were skewed by individual responses to attractive women.Not strong enough
(C) The study fails to account for the psychological complexity of sexual desire in women.Not relevant
(D) The study assumes that women will dress more attractively when they have greater sexual desire.Not relevant
(E) Most women do not know when they are ovulating, and so would not dress more attractively on that day.Has a point but A sounds perfect

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