A study attempting to link fertility with increased sexual

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