Sociologist: Traditional norms in our society prevent sincerity by req

Sociologist: Traditional norms in our society prevent sincerity by requiring one to ignore unpleasant realities and tell small lies. But a community whose members do not trust one another cannot succeed. So, if a community is to succeed, its members must be willing to face unpleasant realities and speak about them honestly.

The sociologist’s conclusion follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?

Highlighted text is conclusion.
Core of the argument is 'To prevent sincerity norms requires one to ignore unpleasant realities and speak lies, thus distrust among community members, thus community does not succeeds'. OR
ignoring unpleasant realities and speaking lies ----> sincerity prevented ----> distrust among community members ----> community does not succeeds.

(A) Sincerity is required if community members are to trust each other. - CORRECT. So so straight forward that its hard to believe. But as we analysed above, we are on right path here. See visualisation.

(B) The more sincere and open community members are, the more likely that community is to succeed. - WRONG. Easily eliminated.

(C) A community sometimes can succeed even if its members subscribe to traditional norms. - WRONG. Easily eliminated. Exact opposite.

(D) Unless a community’s members are willing to face unpleasant realities, they cannot be sincere. - WRONG. Shot myself point-blank here. But the option itself is like that - it shoots you point-blank as if it necessary to have such an assumption.

(E) A community’s failure is often caused by its members’ unwillingness to face unpleasant realities and to discuss them honestly. - WORNG. If succeeds opposite is wrongly interpreted as failure, then it like axing own foot. There's still a possibility of neutrality here. Finally, failure is irrelevant to this argument - not discussed.

Answer A.

EXPLANATION FROM POWER PREP

The best approach for an argument of this type is to simplify its premises and conclusions and quickly diagram the conditional relationships that underlie them:

Premise #1: Trad. Norms → Sincerity (trad. norms prevent sincerity)

Premise #2: Success → Trust (success requires trust)

Conclusion: Success → Sincerity (success requires sincerity)

In short, because the success of a community requires its members to trust each other, they must be sincere and willing to face unpleasant realities. Notice that this simple argument requires you to pay little attention to the first sentence of the stimulus: often times, the trick to answering Justify the Conclusion questions quickly and efficiently is to focus only on the relationship between the premise that directly support the conclusion. The correct answer must establish that Trust requires Sincerity:

Justify Formula: Trust → Sincerity

Therefore, answer choice (A) is correct.

Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. If a community whose members do not trust one another cannot succeed and trust between them requires sincerity, then it logically follows that the success of a community requires sincerity.

Answer choice (B): This answer choice is almost a Mistaken Reversal of the conclusion. A positive correlation between sincerity and success will not prove that success requires sincerity: at best, this answer choice provides moderate support for the conclusion, but fails to justify it.

Answer choice (C): If traditional norms prevent sincerity while a community's success requires it, then it is impossible that a community can ever succeed if its members subscribe to traditional norms. This answer choice is incompatible with the argument and is therefore incorrect.

Answer choice (D): While we can infer that sincerity requires willingness to face unpleasant realities from the first sentence in the stimulus, such an inference does provide the additional link required to justify the conclusion. Remember: proving a conclusion requires the introduction of a new element into the structure of the argument. One can never justify a conclusion with an inference.

Answer choice (E): While this answer choice strengthens the conclusion, it is too weak to provide sufficient support for it. The word "often" should have been a big red flag here, making you eliminate this answer choice automatically.

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