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The usefulness of lie detectors cannot be overestimated. Although ther

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Bunuel
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The usefulness of lie detectors cannot be overestimated. Although ther [#permalink] New post   23 Jan 2019, 03:30
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The usefulness of lie detectors cannot be overestimated. Although there is no employee screening procedure that is 100 percent accurate, the lie detector is a valuable tool for employers and employees alike. The lie detector’s usefulness is amply demonstrated in a recent survey conducted by a prestigious university. In the survey, those employees of a large company who were applying for a newly created position within the company were asked if they had ever worked on Project X. More than one-third of the applicants studied lied and said they had worked on the project—a project that never existed.

Which one of the following best identifies a flaw in the author’s argument about the usefulness of lie detectors?


(A) The argument depends on the assumption that whatever is good for the employer is good for the employee.

(B) Since lie detectors are known to be less than 100 percent accurate, the test will tend to help only those with something to hide.

(C) By referring to a prestigious university, the author is appealing to authority rather than to evidence.

(D) The study shows only that certain individual will lie, not that the lie detector can detect them.

(E) The author fails to address the issue that the use of lie detectors may fail to prevent embezzlement.
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KarishmaB
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Re: The usefulness of lie detectors cannot be overestimated. Although ther [#permalink] New post   25 Jan 2019, 04:36
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Bunuel wrote:
The usefulness of lie detectors cannot be overestimated. Although there is no employee screening procedure that is 100 percent accurate, the lie detector is a valuable tool for employers and employees alike. The lie detector’s usefulness is amply demonstrated in a recent survey conducted by a prestigious university. In the survey, those employees of a large company who were applying for a newly created position within the company were asked if they had ever worked on Project X. More than one-third of the applicants studied lied and said they had worked on the project—a project that never existed.

Which one of the following best identifies a flaw in the author’s argument about the usefulness of lie detectors?


(A) The argument depends on the assumption that whatever is good for the employer is good for the employee.

(B) Since lie detectors are known to be less than 100 percent accurate, the test will tend to help only those with something to hide.

(C) By referring to a prestigious university, the author is appealing to authority rather than to evidence.

(D) The study shows only that certain individual will lie, not that the lie detector can detect them.

(E) The author fails to address the issue that the use of lie detectors may fail to prevent embezzlement.


The argument wants to say that the lie detector is a useful tool.
To showcase that, it talks about a survey - Employees were asked whether they have worked on project X. More than 1/3rd employees said they had. Though there was no project X. Here is the point - where did the lie detector help here? How did we prove that lie detectors are useful. The survey shows that people lie. There was no project X so whoever said they did work on it, they lied. For this we didn't need a lie detector. You ask people and whoever says yes is lying. We did not need the lie detector in this. It doesn't show that the lie detector can detect lies.
Hence answer is (D)

(B) Since lie detectors are known to be less than 100 percent accurate, the test will tend to help only those with something to hide.
This does not make sense. Say lie detectors are 95% accurate. What does this mean? That 5% lies it will not catch? Or that 5% of the times it could claim that a truth is a lie? Or either could happen? We don't know. So how can we say it will help only those who are lying? It will reveal some lies so it won't help all those who have something to hide. It will reveal some truths to be truths so it will help people telling the truth too.
In any case, this is not the flaw in the argument.
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Re: The usefulness of lie detectors cannot be overestimated. Although ther [#permalink] New post   19 Jan 2020, 01:04
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The usefulness of lie detectors cannot be overestimated. Although there is no employee screening procedure that is 100 percent accurate, the lie detector is a valuable tool for employers and employees alike. The lie detector’s usefulness is amply demonstrated in a recent survey conducted by a prestigious university. In the survey, those employees of a large company who were applying for a newly created position within the company were asked if they had ever worked on Project X. More than one-third of the applicants studied lied and said they had worked on the project—a project that never existed.

Which one of the following best identifies a flaw in the author’s argument about the usefulness of lie detectors?


Identify the flaw question

Pre-thinking

Simply enough, the argument tries to assess the usefulness of lie detectors but it tests lie detectors in a situation when they are not needed as we already know who is lying and who is not.

POE:

(A) The argument depends on the assumption that whatever is good for the employer is good for the employee.
Out of scope

(B) Since lie detectors are known to be less than 100 percent accurate, the test will tend to help only those with something to hide.
out of scope

(C) By referring to a prestigious university, the author is appealing to authority rather than to evidence.
out of scope

(D) The study shows only that certain individual will lie, not that the lie detector can detect them.
In line with pre-thinking

(E) The author fails to address the issue that the use of lie detectors may fail to prevent embezzlement.
out of scope

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The usefulness of lie detectors cannot be overestimated. Although ther [#permalink] New post   23 Jan 2019, 04:25
IMO D

came up to answer with POE,

nightblade354
broall
can you please explain option B
and option D
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The usefulness of lie detectors cannot be overestimated. Although ther [#permalink] New post   23 Jan 2019, 05:14
Bunuel wrote:
The usefulness of lie detectors cannot be overestimated. Although there is no employee screening procedure that is 100 percent accurate, the lie detector is a valuable tool for employers and employees alike. The lie detector’s usefulness is amply demonstrated in a recent survey conducted by a prestigious university. In the survey, those employees of a large company who were applying for a newly created position within the company were asked if they had ever worked on Project X. More than one-third of the applicants studied lied and said they had worked on the project—a project that never existed.

Which one of the following best identifies a flaw in the author’s argument about the usefulness of lie detectors?
.(A) The argument depends on the assumption that whatever is good for the employer is good for the employee.

(B) Since lie detectors are known to be less than 100 percent accurate, the test will tend to help only those with something to hide.

(C) By referring to a prestigious university, the author is appealing to authority rather than to evidence.

(D) The study shows only that certain individual will lie, not that the lie detector can detect them.

(E) The author fails to address the issue that the use of lie detectors may fail to prevent embezzlement


IMO D

We need to find a flaw in the author’s argument about the usefulness of lie detectors.

So the argument mentions, Although there is no employee screening procedure that is 100 percent accurate, the lie detector is a valuable tool for employers and employees alike. The lie detector’s usefulness is amply demonstrated in a recent survey conducted by a prestigious university.

More than one-third of the applicants studied lied and said they had worked on the project—a project that never existed.

(A) The argument depends on the assumption that whatever is good for the employer is good for the employee.
hmm, this was just mentioned in the first statement, but then the author was discussing about a study, this was not pertaining to the argument.

(B) Since lie detectors are known to be less than 100 percent accurate, the test will tend to help only those with something to hide.
Hmm something to hide, but then more than 1/3 had lied, isn't this less than 100% quite loose ended.

(C) By referring to a prestigious university, the author is appealing to authority rather than to evidence.
No this is not a flaw in the study, its just supporting the study.

(D) The study shows only that certain individual will lie, not that the lie detector can detect them.
So only people pertaining to the study had lied, so are we not saying that lie detector doesn't work.

(E) The author fails to address the issue that the use of lie detectors may fail to prevent embezzlement
this one went too broad for the scope, we were discussing about catching a fraud for a position, not for the whole company.

Would still like to see how much correct i was, compared to an expert's take at this.
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Re: The usefulness of lie detectors cannot be overestimated. Although ther [#permalink] New post   23 Jan 2019, 08:22
Bunuel wrote:
The usefulness of lie detectors cannot be overestimated. Although there is no employee screening procedure that is 100 percent accurate, the lie detector is a valuable tool for employers and employees alike. The lie detector’s usefulness is amply demonstrated in a recent survey conducted by a prestigious university. In the survey, those employees of a large company who were applying for a newly created position within the company were asked if they had ever worked on Project X. More than one-third of the applicants studied lied and said they had worked on the project—a project that never existed.

Which one of the following best identifies a flaw in the author’s argument about the usefulness of lie detectors?


(A) The argument depends on the assumption that whatever is good for the employer is good for the employee.

(B) Since lie detectors are known to be less than 100 percent accurate, the test will tend to help only those with something to hide.

(C) By referring to a prestigious university, the author is appealing to authority rather than to evidence.

(D) The study shows only that certain individual will lie, not that the lie detector can detect them.

(E) The author fails to address the issue that the use of lie detectors may fail to prevent embezzlement.



IMO D

The lie dectector did not prove that employment seekers lied (about involvement in project X) and so the survey was simply not relevant in determining the effect of the lie detector.
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Re: The usefulness of lie detectors cannot be overestimated. Although ther [#permalink]
23 Jan 2019, 08:22
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