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655-705 Level|   Assumption|                     
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 08 Sep 2020, 06:43
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AjiteshArun

E. Current purchasers of pirated DVDs are aware that those DVDs are not authorized by the film industry.

If we negate this option:

Current purchasers of pirated DVDs are not aware that those DVDs are not authorized by the film industry.

This means when the legitimate DVDs are sold customers may still buy the Pirated DVDs, so the affect conclusion that plan will mitigate piracy negatie effect breaks down.

can you help me with my thinking.
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 08 Sep 2020, 23:02
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AjiteshArun

E. Current purchasers of pirated DVDs are aware that those DVDs are not authorized by the film industry.

If we negate this option:

Current purchasers of pirated DVDs are not aware that those DVDs are not authorized by the film industry.

This means when the legitimate DVDs are sold customers may still buy the Pirated DVDs, so the affect conclusion that plan will mitigate piracy negatie effect breaks down.

can you help me with my thinking.
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Hi hero_with_1000_faces,

It's that last statement "This means when the legitimate DVDs are sold customers may still buy the Pirated DVDs..." that we need to look at. Sure, customers may still buy pirated DVDs, but does that really mean that all of them (the people who currently purchase pirated DVDs) will continue to buy pirated DVDs? The word mitigate just means ~"make a bad situation better". Even if people are not aware that pirated DVDs are not authorized, we can still expect some people to switch to legitimate DVDs if prices are lowered and DVDs are released sooner.

In other words, if (a) prices are lowered and DVDs are released sooner and (b) people are not aware that pirated DVDs are not authorized, we cannot expect a zero "increase" in legitimate profits.
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 06 Oct 2020, 05:17
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Option (D) suggests that if some businesses would 'likely' discontinue their business. Thus, we are probably cutting out the source from where people can buy DVDs. In other words, by lowering prices of DVDs and releasing them sooner we are mitigating piracy's negative effect on film industry profits. Where am I going wrong? Kindly explain
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 12 Oct 2020, 04:49
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Can someone explain why option C is not an assumption?
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 14 Oct 2020, 11:55
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Option (D) suggests that if some businesses would 'likely' discontinue their business. Thus, we are probably cutting out the source from where people can buy DVDs. In other words, by lowering prices of DVDs and releasing them sooner we are mitigating piracy's negative effect on film industry profits. Where am I going wrong? Kindly explain
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Hi Sagar

The key word in your explanation is "probably". In other words, it is only possible that the supply of pirated DVDs would reduce if the measures given in the stimulus were undertaken. By corollary, it is also possible that such a fall in supply would not occur, for example, if new sellers come in to replace the ones discontinuing their businesses or if the remaining sellers increase the supply. This option does not say anything about the demand for pirated DVDs going down. The stimulus makes it clear that this is a demand driven business.

On the other hand, option (B) gives a much cleaner underlying assumption and is hence the better answer. Hope this helps.
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 17 Oct 2020, 09:54
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Can someone explain why option C is not an assumption?
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An assumption is something that must be true in order for the conclusion to be properly drawn. With that in mind, take a look at (C):

Quote:
(C) The film industry will in the future be able to produce DVDs more cheaply than is currently the case.
Show more
If the film industry will be able to produce DVDs more cheaply in the future, then it will likely be able to sell DVDs at lower prices and maintain its profit margin. But we’re not looking for an answer choice that merely strengthens the argument. Rather, we’re looking for an assumption. So, does it have to be true that the film industry will be able to produce DVDs more cheaply in the future in order to mitigate piracy’s negative effects on industry profits?

No, it’s possible that the film industry could continue to produce DVDs at the current price, and the increased demand from consumers who would otherwise purchase pirated films will more than make up for the cheaper price at which DVDs are sold. For that reason, (C) is not an assumption, and we can eliminate it.

I hope that helps!
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 28 Feb 2021, 07:37
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statement B says "Some people who would otherwise purchase pirated DVDs would be willing to purchase legitimate DVDs if they were less expensive and released earlier than they are now" my query is that some mean at least 1 so IMO it does not give legitimate information as to how many people will be willing to but legitimate DVD's whereas statement A says that releasing DVD's will not cause any reduction in revenue so isn't this should be the answer? GMATNinja
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 28 Feb 2021, 20:18
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For Assumption questions, you want to go the other way: cross out the extremes and favor the milder answers. An assumption is something that is needed in order for the argument to work, and we don't need to know that there would be zero loss of revenue. If cutting down on piracy created a spike in revenue for film companies, they could stand to lose at least some revenue in other places and still mitigate the profit loss from piracy.

Now how do we tell that B is necessary? Take it away and see what happens. If we negate B--"NO people who currently buy pirated DVDs would buy legitimate discs if these changes were made"--then the argument completely falls apart. The author is relying on the assumption that there are AT LEAST SOME people who would switch to buying the official product.
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 07 May 2021, 17:47
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@Experts

I discarded B as I felt it did not state any new info but rather what author has already mentioned that is "consumers want lower prices and faster DVD releases". Isn't B then just an inference because it adds no new information.

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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 09 May 2021, 03:52
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@Experts

I discarded B as I felt it did not state any new info but rather what author has already mentioned that is "consumers want lower prices and faster DVD releases". Isn't B then just an inference because it adds no new information.

GMATNinja
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Hey behlmanmeet, I got this question wrong but seem to have understood it now. See if this helps you -

The answer to your question lies in your question itself. Ramirez is basically saying that product X (pirated DVDs) has 2 qualities A and B. Product Y (original DVDs) lacks these qualities. It is reasonable to say that consumers want the qualities A and B in their products, but does that mean if A and B are introduced in product Y, the consumers would start buying Y? No, it does not. There could be a thousand other qualities, apart from A and B, that attract the consumer to product X. From personal experience (of ONLY witnessing piracy), I can think of a few - availability of multiple movies in a single DVD, ability to overwrite the DVD, customer service experience, home delivery, easy exchange, etc.
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 09 May 2021, 06:17
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@Experts

I discarded B as I felt it did not state any new info but rather what author has already mentioned that is "consumers want lower prices and faster DVD releases". Isn't B then just an inference because it adds no new information.

GMATNinja

Hey behlmanmeet, I got this question wrong but seem to have understood it now. See if this helps you -

The answer to your question lies in your question itself. Ramirez is basically saying that product X (pirated DVDs) has 2 qualities A and B. Product Y (original DVDs) lacks these qualities. It is reasonable to say that consumers want the qualities A and B in their products, but does that mean if A and B are introduced in product Y, the consumers would start buying Y? No, it does not. There could be a thousand other qualities, apart from A and B, that attract the consumer to product X. From personal experience (of ONLY witnessing piracy), I can think of a few - availability of multiple movies in a single DVD, ability to overwrite the DVD, customer service experience, home delivery, easy exchange, etc.
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Brian123 I think I understand your point. It's one of those necessary but not sufficient statements. I understand now. Thank you.
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 09 May 2021, 06:25
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@Experts

I discarded B as I felt it did not state any new info but rather what author has already mentioned that is "consumers want lower prices and faster DVD releases". Isn't B then just an inference because it adds no new information.

GMATNinja

Hey behlmanmeet, I got this question wrong but seem to have understood it now. See if this helps you -

The answer to your question lies in your question itself. Ramirez is basically saying that product X (pirated DVDs) has 2 qualities A and B. Product Y (original DVDs) lacks these qualities. It is reasonable to say that consumers want the qualities A and B in their products, but does that mean if A and B are introduced in product Y, the consumers would start buying Y? No, it does not. There could be a thousand other qualities, apart from A and B, that attract the consumer to product X. From personal experience (of ONLY witnessing piracy), I can think of a few - availability of multiple movies in a single DVD, ability to overwrite the DVD, customer service experience, home delivery, easy exchange, etc.

Brian123 I think I understand your point. It's one of those necessary but not sufficient statements. I understand now. Thank you.
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I'm glad it helped behlmanmeet, but I wouldn't even call it a necessary statement (perhaps an expert might be able to confirm this). It is what it is. I personally do not like classifying each statement into "CR Jargons" as the technique does not work well for me and makes my thought process rigid. To each his own, I guess! :)
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 10 May 2021, 14:54
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually cheaper than legitimate DVDs and become available well before a film's official DVD release date, adversely affect its bottom line. But the industry should note what the spread of piracy indicates: consumers want lower prices and faster DVD releases. Lowering prices of DVDs and releasing them sooner would mitigate piracy's negative effect on film industry profits.

P : pirate DVDs adversely affect the market's bottom line
P : consumer want lower prices and faster DVD releases
C : lowering prices and releasing sooner would mitigate piracy's negative effect

The argument above relies on which of the following assumptions?

A. Releasing legitimate DVDs earlier would not cause any reduction in the revenue the film industry receives from the films' theatrical release.
-> Irrelevant. The conclusion of the argument is to mitigate the negative effect of piracy. On the other hand, this option is talking about revenue from theaters.

B. Some people who would otherwise purchase pirated DVDs would be willing to purchase legitimate DVDs if they were less expensive and released earlier than they are now.
-> Correct. There must be some need for people to buy legitimate DVDs under the condition the author has mentioned. If not, the DVD's legitimate industry will not be profitable even though they release DVDs faster and cheaper.

C. The film industry will in the future be able to produce DVDs more cheaply than is currently the case.
-> Irrelevant. Making DVDs cheaper will enhance the profitability to release DVDs faster and cheaper. However, this option does not have a direct relationship with piracy.

D. Some current sellers of pirated DVDs would likely discontinue their businesses if legitimate DVDs were released faster and priced lower.
-> Many some current sellers might stop. However, if consumers continue finding pirate DVDs, the market will be continued by other DVD sellers.

E. Current purchasers of pirated DVDs are aware that those DVDs are not authorized by the film industry.
-> Irrelevant. Being aware and purchasing has no relationship in this argument. Some might suspect that people will feel guilty and buy legitimate DVDs if they are released faster and cheaper. However, we cannot guarantee this option.
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 11 May 2021, 09:22
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I chose the correct option B, but I am having a tough time in eliminating Option C here.

C. The film industry will in the future be able to produce DVDs more cheaply than is currently the case.

If I negate it, then it says that the film industry would not be able to lower the prices of the DVDs in the future. So, if they can not lower the prices, the conclusion fails. Because, the cheaper pirated DVD market would thrive due to this price gap between the two.

Please, resolve this.

Thank you in advance.
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 11 May 2021, 21:48
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AjiteshArun
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DavidTutorexamPAL

I chose the correct option B, but I am having a tough time in eliminating Option C here.

C. The film industry will in the future be able to produce DVDs more cheaply than is currently the case.

If I negate it, then it says that the film industry would not be able to lower the prices of the DVDs in the future. So, if they can not lower the prices, the conclusion fails. Because, the cheaper pirated DVD market would thrive due to this price gap between the two.

Please, resolve this.

Thank you in advance.
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Hi MissBong,

Let's take another look at what Ramirez is saying:
1. The spread of piracy indicates that consumers want lower prices and faster DVD releases. ← This is the support.
2. Therefore, "lowering prices of DVDs and releasing them sooner would mitigate piracy's negative effect on film industry profits". ← This is the conclusion.

Now we need to figure out what Ramirez's argument relies on. Option C is "The film industry will in the future be able to produce DVDs more cheaply than is currently the case." But there is no reason to think that the only way to reduce DVD (consumer) prices is to reduce the price of manufacturing a (physical) disk. That is, even if the cost of manufacturing a DVD does not fall in the future, Ramirez's plan will still work.

Here's another way to think about this: the film industry (a large customer) is most likely getting far better prices from DVD manufacturers (or the film industry controls the manufacturing process, which may be even better) than the people who make pirated DVDs (small, fragmented). The price difference is almost certainly due to factors other than the cost of manufacturing a DVD. Sure, if the cost of manufacturing a DVD falls (and nothing else changes), we'd expect the film industry's profits to go up, but Ramirez's argument does not rely on such a reduction in manufacturing costs. That is, there is no reason to think that the only way to reduce the (consumer) price of a DVD is to cut the manufacturing cost of a DVD.

Option B is a great fit for the conclusion (mitigate piracy's negative effect on film industry profits) because if it is true, then some people who would otherwise purchase pirated DVDs would purchase legitimate DVDs, thus mitigating piracy's negative impact on film industry profits.
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 14 May 2021, 23:25
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GMATNinja How to apply the Negation test In option D here?
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 04 Jun 2021, 13:50
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GMATNinja How to apply the Negation test In option D here?
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We actually don't recommend using negation, because it can be difficult to apply with 100% accuracy.

Here's another way to think about (D): the question asks us which answer choice is an assumption on which the argument relies. In other words, the correct answer choice MUST be true in order for the author to reach his/her conclusion. So, does (D) absolutely have to be true to conclude that "lowering prices of DVDs and releasing them sooner would mitigate piracy's negative effect on film industry profits"?

Here's (D):
Quote:
D. Some current sellers of pirated DVDs would likely discontinue their businesses if legitimate DVDs were released faster and priced lower.
Show more
The author's argument doesn't rely on current sellers of pirated DVDs closing up their businesses. For example, these pirates could just sell fewer DVDs (because people shift to buying the new cheaper/faster legitimate DVDs), without going out of business. So, even if every single pirated DVD salesperson stays in business, the film industry could still accomplish the goal of mitigating piracy's negative effect on profits.

Because (D) doesn't absolutely HAVE to be true, it's not an assumption on which the argument relies. Eliminate (D).

I hope that helps!
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 16 Sep 2021, 05:45
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@Experts :

Can you please on why option B is correct and why not option A.

B option says that " Some people who would otherwise purchase pirated DVDs ......." .

In this case, out of 10 people , 9 could have preferred pirated DVDs and 1 could have preferred Legit DVDs

Even in this case , the plan of mitigating the piracy's negative effect on profits would not work .


daagh GMATNinja

Really good question that kind of strikes at the heart of what makes Assumption questions so interesting (and difficult). With assumptions (and I'll demonstrate why in a second):

1) It's really, really rare that extreme/universal words like all, only, never, etc. are required assumptions.

2) The correct answer / required assumption is usually much more subtle than what a great Strengthen answer would be, so you have to treat Assumption questions differently.

3) This is where the Assumption Negation Technique can be so useful in helping show why points 1 and 2 are so important.

Here notice that choice (A) has that extreme/universal language "would not cause any reduction" in revenue from theatrical release. Say that that were not true, and there were at least *some* reduction in the theatrical revenue. A negated choice (A) would read:

Releasing legitimate DVDs earlier would not cause any cause some reduction in the revenue the film industry receives from the films' theatrical release.

At this point we don't know whether the decrease in theatrical revenue is offset or overcome by an increase in the DVD revenue they're trying to recoup with this plan. We can't tell whether a negated (A) helps or hurts the conclusion, meaning that it's not a necessary assumption. A small decrease in theatrical revenue overcome by a massive increase in DVD revenue means that the plan still works; a massive decrease in theatrical revenue and a marginal increase in DVD revenue means that it didn't work at all. We just don't know.

With (B), the opposite of "some people who would otherwise purchase..." is "no people who would otherwise purchase." So a negated (B) is:

Some No people who would otherwise purchase pirated DVDs would be willing to purchase legitimate DVDs if they were less expensive and released earlier than they are now.

Well here if no one is going to buy the DVDs under the new plan, the plan is a complete and total flop: it does absolutely nothing because no one is participating. So a negated (B) absolutely cripples the argument. And that shows why (B) is a necessary assumption of the argument: without it, the argument is worthless.

That's why Assumption Negation is so powerful: by considering the opposite of an answer choice, you get to:

1) Determine whether you really need that assumption or not. If without it you know for sure the argument is powerfully damaged, then that assumption was required (like with B). If without it you can't really tell whether the argument still works or not, it wasn't essential to the argument in the first place.

2) Turn fairly "soft" Assumption answers (like "some people..." in B) into powerful Weaken answers. Assumptions are really easy to make...correct answers don't often jump off the screen to you as "oh yeah that one is absolutely right." But good Weaken answers often *do* jump off the screen. Assumption Negation allows you to turn hard Assumption questions into easy/moderate Weaken questions.

3) See why extreme/universal words like "all" or "none" are so infrequently required by an argument. The opposite of "all" is "not all," and even if not all, but most, people behave a certain way, the argument tends to still work. But the opposite of "some" is "none" and as you can see with (B) if you turn "some people" to "no one" an argument can crumble really quickly. All/none are great Strengthen/Weaken words but not great Assumption words, since you rarely ever need such extremes as required information for an argument to hold up.
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Hi,
How do we decide which part we negate?

So you did:
Some No people who would otherwise purchase pirated DVDs would be willing to purchase legitimate DVDs if they were less expensive and released earlier than they are now.

Why cant we do the below:
Some people who would otherwise purchase pirated DVDs would NOT be willing to purchase legitimate DVDs if they were less expensive and released earlier than they are now.

Thanks Kittle
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kittle
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 16 Sep 2021, 05:57
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VeritasPrepBrian
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Hi,

If we were to negate option B like the following, "Some people who would otherwise purchase pirated DVDs would NOT be willing to purchase legitimate DVDs if they were less expensive and released earlier than they are now", would this be incorrect? I negated option B like this and founded the conclusion to still hold because even if some people choose not to purchase legitimate DVDs and most did, the conclusion would still hold regarding the industry's profits. Could you please help explain where I am making a mistake? Would greatly appreciate it!

Yeah, really good question. I've always looked at Assumption Negation this way:

1) If you have a qualifier like "some," "not all," "all," "none," "only," etc. as part of the subject of an answer choice, negate that.

For example: "Some people would buy DVDs" --> "No people would buy DVDs"

2) If you don't have that, negate the primary verb in the sentence.

For example "People would buy DVDs if they were cheaper" --> "People would not buy DVDs if they were cheaper"

3) If you're unsure, try a few option of where you negate and if you do find one that cripples the conclusion, that's a good answer to keep around. If that happens on multiple choices, then go back to the argument and try to really understand the flaw now that you've seen some potential weaknesses.

#1 is important though, because think of what happens if you negate the verb in "some people would buy DVDs":

"Some people would buy DVDs" --> "Some people would not buy DVDs"

Those two almost exactly same the same thing ("some would" doesn't *always* mean "some wouldn't" but usually it does). So you're not really negating the statement there: you're essentially just reinforcing it. That's why it's so important to go after the some/all/none qualifier: that's where the real negation happens if you have one of those qualifiers in the subject.
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Super helpful article!!! VeritasPrepBrian
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himanshu0077
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Ramirez: The film industry claims that pirated DVDs, which are usually 11 Sep 2022, 12:01
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VeritasPrepBrian
Quote:
Hi,

If we were to negate option B like the following, "Some people who would otherwise purchase pirated DVDs would NOT be willing to purchase legitimate DVDs if they were less expensive and released earlier than they are now", would this be incorrect? I negated option B like this and founded the conclusion to still hold because even if some people choose not to purchase legitimate DVDs and most did, the conclusion would still hold regarding the industry's profits. Could you please help explain where I am making a mistake? Would greatly appreciate it!

Yeah, really good question. I've always looked at Assumption Negation this way:

1) If you have a qualifier like "some," "not all," "all," "none," "only," etc. as part of the subject of an answer choice, negate that.

For example: "Some people would buy DVDs" --> "No people would buy DVDs"

2) If you don't have that, negate the primary verb in the sentence.



For example "People would buy DVDs if they were cheaper" --> "People would not buy DVDs if they were cheaper"

3) If you're unsure, try a few option of where you negate and if you do find one that cripples the conclusion, that's a good answer to keep around. If that happens on multiple choices, then go back to the argument and try to really understand the flaw now that you've seen some potential weaknesses.

#1 is important though, because think of what happens if you negate the verb in "some people would buy DVDs":

"Some people would buy DVDs" --> "Some people would not buy DVDs"

Those two almost exactly same the same thing ("some would" doesn't *always* mean "some wouldn't" but usually it does). So you're not really negating the statement there: you're essentially just reinforcing it. That's why it's so important to go after the some/all/none qualifier: that's where the real negation happens if you have one of those qualifiers in the subject.
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As per my understanding if "option b" had been " Significant number of people who would....... are now" then it would have conveyed much clear picture. Like if we negate this "Significant number of people ..... would not be willing to purchase......." then it makes perfect sense.
Please clarify if my understanding is correct or not?

Your negation technique is awesome.

Thanks in advance.
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