Bunuel wrote:
Loneliness is commonly reported in elderly populations. A study of elderly people found that those who owned dogs reported feeling less lonely than those who did not own dogs. Clearly, an elderly person who adopts a pet will be less likely to suffer feelings of loneliness than an elderly person without a pet.
Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the argument above?
(A) Owning a pet has been linked to several health benefits, including lower blood pressure.
(B) Some people feel that cats do not engage socially with their owners as much as dogs do.
(C) The number of elderly people who own pets is projected to rise in the coming years.
(D) A large percentage of elderly dog owners report taking their dogs for walks and to dog parks.
(E) Pets other than dogs provide the same benefits of companionship as do dogs.
KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE QUESTION TYPEThe word “strengthen” indicates that you should read to identify the author’s conclusion and evidence, then think about what additional evidence would support the argument’s conclusion, making its central assumption more likely to be true.
STEP 2: UNTANGLE THE STIMULUSThe conclusion is signaled by the key word “[c]learly” in the last sentence: an elderly person with a pet is less likely to be lonely than one without a pet. The evidence is a study that found less loneliness in elderly dog owners than in elderly non–dog owners.
STEP 3: PREDICT THE ANSWERWhenever an argument references a sample or a study, suspect a representativeness issue. The heart of representativeness is the assumption that a group mentioned in the evidence is representative of the group mentioned in the conclusion. In this argument, the author is assuming that the benefit conferred by dogs upon elderly owners— namely the easing of loneliness—is representative of the benefit conferred on elderly owners by pets of any kind. To strengthen the argument, look for the answer choice that supports this assumption.
STEP 4: EVALUATE THE CHOICES(E) matches the prediction and is correct. (A) is incorrect because the argument is only about whether owning a pet will help with loneliness; other benefits of owning pets are irrelevant. If (B) said that cats actually don’t engage socially with their owners as much as dogs, this choice would weaken the argument (not strengthen it) by providing evidence that not all pets are as good as dogs at alleviating loneliness. Since it talks only about how some people perceive cats, it has no effect on the argument; since it does not strengthen the argument, it can be eliminated. (C) is incorrect because ownership projections are irrelevant to the conclusion. Finally, (D) provides more evidence for the utility of dogs as companion animals and possible facilitators of companionship (one might conceivably meet other people while walking the dog or at the dog park), but it does not support the conclusion about the efficacy of pets in general.
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