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Can you confirm the line of reasoning to eliminate option D
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Study of human psychology reveals that feeling of guilt has a strong effect on the mind and this feeling is intensified when in seclusion. Hence, any criminal who is kept in solitary confinement for up to a month is likely to refrain from any criminal activity after his punishment is over.(=FEELING OF GUILT INTENSIFIES WITH SECLUSION.SO,SOLITARY CONFINEMENT,INTENSIFIES GUILT AND AS A RESULT CRIMINALS REFRAIN FROM DOING CRIMINAL ACTIVITY.NOW ,WE HAVE TO FIND AN OPTION WHICH STATES THAT EVEN WHEN A PERSON FEELS GUILTY ,IS IN A SOLITARY CONFINEMENT ,HE WILL COMMIT CRIME.)

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?

A. Solitary confinement is not the only way of making criminals feel guilty.SOLITARY REQUIREMENT INTENSIFIES GUILT ; IT'S NOT THE WAY TO MAKE ONE FEEL GUILTY.
B. Solitary confinement is already in place in many countries of the world.IRRELEVANT
C. Many criminals who have not been given solitary confinement have refrained from further criminal activity.WE ARE INTERESTED IN KNOWING WHETHER CRIMINALS FEELING GUILTY AND KEPT IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT COMMIT CRIME OR NOT?
D. In some cases, criminals do not consider themselves guilty of their actions before solitary confinement.WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT ONE WHO DOESN'T FEEL GUILTY BEFORE SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.THEY MAY OR MAYNOT COMMIT CRIME.
E. There are some habitual criminals who commit crimes even when they feel guilty about their earlier actions.IN ACCORDANCE WITH OUR PRE THINKING.
EXPERTS CORRECT ME IF YOU PEOPLE THINK I AM WRONG IN REASONING PART.

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Study of human psychology reveals that feeling of guilt has a strong effect on the mind and this feeling is intensified when in seclusion. Hence, any criminal who is kept in solitary confinement for up to a month is likely to refrain from any criminal activity after his punishment is over.

D. In some cases, criminals do not consider themselves guilty of their actions before solitary confinement

The study only covers criminals who feel guilty. Criminals who do not feel guilty is not relevant to the study and therefore out of scope.


Therefore E

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Conclusion - Feeling of guilt has a strong effect on the mind and gets intensified in Seclusion, so any criminal who is kept in solitary confinement for up to a month is likely to refrain from any criminal activity after his punishment is over.

1 - Solitary confinement is not the only way of making criminals feel guilty. Irrelevant - Passage doesn't talk other ways to make Criminal Guilty.

2 - Solitary confinement is already in place in many countries of the world. Out of scope - Doesn't tell its effect on criminals.

3 - Many criminals who have not been given solitary confinement have refrained from further criminal activity. - Irrelevant - We aren't concerned about criminals not been given solitary confinement.

4- In some cases, criminals do not consider themselves guilty of their actions before solitary confinement. Out of scope - We aren't concerned about criminals before solitary confinement.

5 -There are some habitual criminals who commit crimes even when they feel guilty about their earlier actions. - Correct - if Criminals commit crimes even after feeling guilty, then criminals wouldn't refrain from committing crime - Weakens the Conclusion.
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Study of human psychology reveals that feeling of guilt has a strong effect on the mind and this feeling is intensified when in seclusion. Hence, any criminal who is kept in solitary confinement for up to a month is likely to refrain from any criminal activity after his punishment is over.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?

A. Solitary confinement is not the only way of making criminals feel guilty.
B. Solitary confinement is already in place in many countries of the world.
C. Many criminals who have not been given solitary confinement have refrained from further criminal activity
D. In some cases, criminals do not consider themselves guilty of their actions before solitary confinement.
E. There are some habitual criminals who commit crimes even when they feel guilty about their earlier actions.

As per the above question, feeling of guilt has a strong effect.. and then it goes on to say that Any criminal kept in Solitary confinement.
Question stem no where says that the Criminal who are feel guilty but makes a statement about Any Criminal, and hence if that Criminal (Mentions Some means any number between 1 to 100) doesn't even feel guilty than solitary confinement will have no impact on him and this weakens the argument.
Hence chose option D

Please let me know where did I falter in this approach?
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Skyline393
Study of human psychology reveals that feeling of guilt has a strong effect on the mind and this feeling is intensified when in seclusion. Hence, any criminal who is kept in solitary confinement for up to a month is likely to refrain from any criminal activity after his punishment is over.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?

A. Solitary confinement is not the only way of making criminals feel guilty.
B. Solitary confinement is already in place in many countries of the world.
C. Many criminals who have not been given solitary confinement have refrained from further criminal activity
D. In some cases, criminals do not consider themselves guilty of their actions before solitary confinement.
E. There are some habitual criminals who commit crimes even when they feel guilty about their earlier actions.

Source: ExpertsGlobal

Agreed E may be right, but it does not explicitly mention that criminals have undergone seclusion.
Doesn't that matter in deciding between the answer choices?

Can someone please answer? My initial thoughts were between C & E.
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Skyline393
Study of human psychology reveals that feeling of guilt has a strong effect on the mind and this feeling is intensified when in seclusion. Hence, any criminal who is kept in solitary confinement for up to a month is likely to refrain from any criminal activity after his punishment is over.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the conclusion above?

A. Solitary confinement is not the only way of making criminals feel guilty.
B. Solitary confinement is already in place in many countries of the world.
C. Many criminals who have not been given solitary confinement have refrained from further criminal activity
D. In some cases, criminals do not consider themselves guilty of their actions before solitary confinement.
E. There are some habitual criminals who commit crimes even when they feel guilty about their earlier actions.

Source: ExpertsGlobal

My reasoning for choosing option D was like this -

The argument says that the feeling of guilt intensifies when in seclusion, and the argument thus concludes that any criminal who is kept in solitary confinement for up to a month is likely to refrain from any criminal activity.
But option D tells us that "in some cases, criminals do not consider themselves guilty of their actions before solitary confinement .
So if these people are not feeling guilty at all then there is no feeling which will be intensified and thus the argument "any criminal....." will collapse.

Please help in understanding where did I go wrong?
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Don't particularly like the question.

The conclusion says, any criminal kept in solitary confinement for a month is likely to refrain from criminal activity after the punishment is over. "Likely" implies > 50% chance.

Now, the first 4 choices can be easily eliminated. We are left with D and E.

For E, even if there are some criminals who will continue to commit crimes after punishment, despite having been kept in solitary confinement, how does it change the conclusion? It could still be "LIKELY" that any criminal chosen at random will not commit criminal activity in the future.

Choice D says that, in some cases, criminals do not feel guilty of their crime. The argument says that guilt intensifies when in solitary confinement. If some criminals do not feel guilty in the first place, guilt is unlikely to intensify, since it is non-existent. Hence, for these people, solitary confinement will have no effect of intensification, remorse and abstinence from future ciminal activity.

I chose D, but OA is E. Could anyone help explain?

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The reasoning that I used to choose E over D was, Even if criminals dont feel guilty before Solitary confinement, we can not be sure that the experience of solitary confinement doesnt invoke that guilt in them, which means it is unknown how they are going to behave inside the prision, will they feel any guilt at all or not, presumably solitary confinement could make some criminals reflect on their actions and the guilt comes kicking in, vs Option E takes the best case into account, that even when guilt happens it is not enough to stop some criminals from acting out.
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