In casual conversation, people experience little psychological

Question

In casual conversation, people experience little psychological discomfort in admitting that they have some particular character flaw if and only if they consider trivial the flaw to which they admit. Therefore, if in casual conversation an individual readily admits that he or she has some particular character flaw, the individual must not consider that flaw to be serious.

Which one of the following is an assumption necessary to the argument?

Which one of the following is an assumption necessary to the argument?

(A) Most character flaws are considered trivial by those who have them.
(B) People admit to having only those character flaws that most other people consider trivial.
(C) In casual conversation, people admit to having character flaws only when they must.
(D) In casual conversation, people most readily admit to having a character flaw only when that admission causes them little psychological discomfort.
(E) In casual conversation, people do not speak of things that would give others an unfavorable impression of their character.

chenm93 · Answer

From the argument, we can deduce these relationships:

P: If someone experiences little discomfort, their flaw must be trivial
C: People admit a character flaw only if the flaw is trivial

I'd stop here and think about how the structure of this argument works. The conclusion talks about all types of character flaws. But what about non-trivial character flaws? Could people still admit those? They could, given the conclusion, unless we have an additional assumption like this.

A: People only admit a character flaw if they experience little discomfort as a result.

(A) Most character flaws are considered trivial by those who have them.  The argument doesn't state this anywhere. 
(B) People admit to having only those character flaws that most other people consider trivial.  The opinions of others don't matter -- what matters is whether the same person considers their flaw trivial or not 
(C) In casual conversation, people admit to having character flaws only when they must.  This isn't supported; the argument doesn't say anything about being forced to admit flaws 
(D) In casual conversation, people most readily admit to having a character flaw only when that admission causes them little psychological discomfort. The negation test is useful here.  Let's say that this assertion is not necessary. What if someone admits to a character flaw, even when it causes them more than a little psychological discomfort? We only know the relationship between little physical discomfort and trivial character flaws. But if someone experiences none, or a lot of psychological discomfort their flaw could be trivial, non-trivial or anything else on the spectrum.  
(E) In casual conversation, people do not speak of things that would give others an unfavorable impression of their character.  This is close, but not as good. An unfavorable impression from someone else isn't necessarily the same as psychological discomfort.

jurin · Answer

Premise: People consider flaw trivial -----> They experience little discomfort in admitting
Conclusion: People consider flaw trivial -----> They readily admit character flaw

Assumption: People who readily admit character flaw experience little discomfort

Answer D says just that

AkshdeepS · Answer

Flaw Trivial (A) = Discomfort in admitting the flaw (B)

Flaw not serious (means Flaw Trivial) (A) = Readily Admitting (C)

If A = B, & A = C

Means A = C

Only answer choice D makes this comparison.

Hence correct.

sayan640 · Answer

In casual conversation, people experience little psychological discomfort in admitting that they have some particular character flaw if and only if they consider trivial the flaw to which they admit. Therefore, if in casual conversation an individual readily admits that he or she has some particular character flaw, the individual must not consider that flaw to be serious.

Which one of the following is an assumption necessary to the argument?

(A) Most character flaws are considered trivial by those who have them.
Irrelevant
(B) People admit to having only those character flaws that most other people consider trivial.
Irrelevant
(C) In casual conversation, people admit to having character flaws only when they must.
Irrelevant
(D) In casual conversation, people most readily admit to having a character flaw only when that admission causes them little psychological discomfort.

If negated this becomes --- "In casual conversation , people do not most readily admit to having a character flaw only when that admission causes them little psychological discomfort."
Then the conclusion which says "that an individual readily admits that he /she has some particular character flaw when he/she considers that flaw trivial (or that means not serious
and causes them little discomfort)"
can not follow.

So D is the assumption.

(E) In casual conversation, people do not speak of things that would give others an unfavorable impression of their character.[/quote]

VeritasKarishma , egmat , ChiranjeevSingh , GMATNinja Is my explanation correct ?

Give me kudos if you like my explanation.

GMAT0010 · Answer

Hi, This is an interesting question. Kudos to nevergiveup !

So, from the above argument, the first sentence draws a correlation between "little psychological discomfort" in admitting some flaw to its trivial nature, which they admit. The next sentence concludes a causal relationship between the two. Because one admits readily...... the flaw is trivial. Note that we need to bridge the gap between the premise and conclusion. So what are we missing? Look for that "gap" in logic. So for example, if I were to go on a date, I would take note of what to speak. Now let's say I do have a flaw: I'm selfish. Now if I admit that I am indeed a selfish person, I consider this as absolutely trivial, and so I would have little psychological discomfort.

To make things easy, lets look at the options and eliminate the wrong ones: Option A: We are talking about a particular character flaw, not most. Also if we negate this, the argument doesn't change. Eliminate Option B: People admit to having character flaws that "they" consider trivial. What is trivial to you could be serious to others. Negation test doesn't hold positive either. Eliminate. Option C: This is extreme. In fact when we negate this, the argument doesn't change.Eliminate. Option D: This is the only option that connects discomfort to admitting a character flaw. If we negate this,the argument breaks up. Keep this. Option E: This is out is scope, similar to B. What is trivial to you could be serious to others. We don't know what is serious to them. Eliminate. D is the right answer. Hope this helps!

abhi19051990 · Answer

Hi

I think D is a conclusion and not something new that can be taken as assumption.

GDT · Answer

What would be the negation of D

Would we it be "not most readily admit" or would it be "most readily admit not only if"

Abhishek009 · Answer

Not most will be the correct Negation... Please help yourself from the following link - https://e-gmat.com/blogs/negationtest/

ricardorr04 · Answer

only answer D is feasible given the information we are given. everything else is out of scope and not necessary (can easily be negated/stress tested).

chose D in 1:50

kagrawal16 · Answer

People experience discomfort in admitting iff they regard the flaw trivial.
Conclusion if they admit then the flaw is trivial.

Link : if they admit then they have discomfort in admitting.
Choice d

Posted from my mobile device

GMATGuruNY · Answer

Conclusion:
 The individual must not consider that flaw to be serious.

Apply the NEGATION TEST.
When the correct answer is negated, the conclusion will be invalidated.

Note:
 A only when B   = If A, then B
Also:
When  If A, then B  is negated, the result is  If A, then NOT B .

D:  People most readily admit to having a character flaw only when that admission causes them little psychological discomfort .
Rephrased as an if-then statement:
 If an individual readily admits to having a character flaw, then the admission causes the individual little psychological discomfort. 
Neganted:
 If an individual readily admits to having a character flaw, then  the admission causes the individual GREAT psychological discomfort.

The conclusion that the flaw is not considered serious depends on the presence of LITTLE psychological discomfort.
As a result, the red portion above invalidates the conclusion.
Since the negation of D invalidates the conclusion, D is an ASSUMPTION: a statement that MUST BE TRUE for the conclusion to hold.

D

unraveled · Answer

In casual conversation, people experience little psychological discomfort in admitting that they have some particular character flaw if and only if they consider trivial the flaw to which they admit. Therefore, if in casual conversation an individual readily admits that he or she has some particular character flaw, the individual must not consider that flaw to be serious.

Which one of the following is an assumption necessary to the argument?

Which one of the following is an assumption necessary to the argument?

(A)  Most character flaws are considered trivial  by those who have them.
(B) People admit to having  only those character flaws  that most other people consider trivial.
(C) In casual conversation, people admit to having character flaws  only when they must .
(D) In casual conversation, people most readily admit to having a character flaw only when that admission causes them little psychological discomfort.
(E) In casual conversation, people do not speak of things that would give others an  unfavorable impression of their character .

If someone realises that there's a direct relation between triviality of flaw and discomfiture that one experiences in accepting it then this question becomes easy.
It is
triviality ↓ ---> discomfiture ↓
OR 
triviality ↑ ---> discomfiture ↑

Only D suggests such thing exists.

Answer D.

alizakhatoon · Answer

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VerbalBot · Answer

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In casual conversation, people experience little psychological

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