Critics worry that pessimistic news reports about the economy harm it

Question

Critics worry that pessimistic news reports about the economy harm it by causing people to lose confidence in the economy, of which everyone has direct experience every day. Journalists respond that to do their jobs well they cannot worry about the effects of their work. Also, studies show that people do not defer to journalists except on matters of which they have no direct experience.

The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of the following?

A) Critics who think that the economy is affected by the extent of people's confidence in it are wrong.

B) Pessimistic news reports about such matters as foreign policy, of which people do not have experience every day, are likely to have a negative impact.

C) Pessimistic news reports about the state of the economy are likely to harm the economy.

D) News reports about the economy are unlikely to have a significant effect on people's opinions about the state of the economy.

E) Journalists need not be deeply concerned about their reporting's effects on the well-being of the average citizen.

Source:LSAT

AdityaHongunti · Accepted Answer

hey there , i suugest you to read and solve the question again and then view my analysis...

The entire point of inference is to look at the main idea of the author OR try to infer little things from the statements he made...

Critics worry that pessimistic news reports about the economy harm it by causing people to lose confidence in the economy, of which everyone has direct experience every day. Journalists respond that to do their jobs well they cannot worry about the effects of their work. Also, studies show that people do not defer to journalists except on matters of which they have no direct experience.

understand : 
1)critics worry . why?? they think that pessimistic (not really good/negative) news about the economy will ultimately harm the economy itself by instilling in people low confidence about the economy. The critics think that when ppl read such negative reviews about the economy , they lose the confidence in economy(maybe they wont invest in shares, wont buy bonds, wont purchase much,etc) . and will consequently hurt the economy itself... "the economy, of which everyone has direct experience every day" - this economy is in constant contact with the people.. means that people know of this economy very well
2)journalist say that it is their job to be unbiased and apathetic(dont care about ppl) towards their jobs.
3)studies show- people do not defer ( have the same point of view ) to journlist EXCEPT on matter of which THEY HAVE NO EXPERIENCE.( matter which people do not have much knowledge abt)
inference - the author argued that ppl do not defer from jornos on matter they have exp about.. that means that ppl already know that the economy is bad and they agree with jornos.

The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of the following? 
- inference questions. the questions says if the above argument is true, then which of the below options is most strongly supported by the above statements.. that means that the one of the five choices can be inferred OR is supported by above argument.

A) Critics who think that the economy is affected by the extent of people's confidence in it are wrong. - WRONG
- the argument says that the critic worry that the economy will be HARMED by the confidence... they are right that the economy will be affected (affected can be positive or negative) ... so they are right...

B) Pessimistic news reports about such matters as foreign policy, of which people do not have experience every day, are likely to have a negative impact. 
- the author only says that ppl defer from jornos on topic which they DO NOT have any experience... we do not know if that topic will have negative impact

C) Pessimistic news reports about the state of the economy are likely to harm the economy. 
- OPPOSITE... just now the author argued that ppl do not defer from jornos on matter they have exp about.. that means that ppl already know that the economy is bad and they agree with jornos.

D) News reports about the economy are unlikely to have a significant effect on people's opinions about the state of the economy. - CORRECT
author says that ppl DO NOT DEFER(have the same view as the jornos do). so if jornos say that economy is bad , then the ppl already know this or they agree with them .. and if they already know about the state of economy how will the reporting of the bad news affect the ppl?? it wont.. so if ppl already know about the state of the economy and the news report also says the same then the reporting wont have much of an effect on their confidence.

E) Journalists need not be deeply concerned about their reporting's effects on the well-being of the average citizen.
- OUT OF SCOPE... how and what a jorno should be concerned about is not given in passage

tell me, if u still have doubts

AndrewN · Answer

Good question,  Shikhar22 , but you have to be careful when you consider the two instances in which  direct experience  is mentioned in the passage. I will draw attention to each below.

Did you catch the difference this time? The first line specifies a type of direct experience, one that takes place  every day , while the second leaves off the part about frequency, leaving us to interpret it as saying that people have  no direct experience at all  with certain matters. Take a look at (B) and (D) again through the lens of the question.

(B) diverts our attention with language that mimics that of the passage but slips in  every day , so, while it appears to fall in line, it actually does not. People could have experience  to some extent  with  such matters as foreign policy , just not  every day , a situation that would work  against  (B). Meanwhile, with (D), the passage tells us in the first line that  everyone has direct experience every day   , and since the last line tells us that  people do not defer to journalists except on matters of which they have no direct experience —at all, not everyday experience—we can conclude that people will not place too much stock in what journalists write about the economy. This happens to be exactly what (D) says, so it provides the best, most sound answer.

I hope that helps. Good luck with your studies. (You might want to take it easy on difficult LSAT questions if you are preparing for the GMAT™.)

- Andrew

ENEM · Answer

my answer was incorrect, but will still put down my line of thinking...

A. this is not specified anywhere in the prompt. eliminated
C. it is said that critics believe that pessimistic reports are about the economy harm the economy...it is the opinion of critics...it is not stated as a fact. eliminated.
D. i misread this as 'newspaper reports are "likely"..." and therefore eliminated it because it is the opposite of what is mentioned.
E.OUT OF SCOPE

therefore by process of elimination I arrived at B, which is obviously wrong, the opposite of this would be true as per the information given in the prompt.

sananoor · Answer

It should be D....rest of the options are either too extreme or out of scope

Posted from my mobile device

GMAT215 · Answer

can anyone pls explain what the question is trying to say ??

I couldnt even make out the overall meaning.. 
specifically , "Also, studies show that people do not defer to journalists except on matters of which they have no direct experience."

militarytocorp · Answer

Critics worry that pessimistic news reports about the economy harm it by causing people to lose confidence in the economy, of which everyone has direct experience every day. Journalists respond that to do their jobs well they cannot worry about the effects of their work. Also, studies show that people do not defer to journalists except on matters of which they have no direct experience.

The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of the following?

A) Critics who think that the economy is affected by the extent of people's confidence in it are wrong.

B) Pessimistic news reports about such matters as foreign policy, of which people do not have experience every day, are likely to have a negative impact.

C) Pessimistic news reports about the state of the economy are likely to harm the economy.

D) News reports about the economy are unlikely to have a significant effect on people's opinions about the state of the economy.

E) Journalists need not be deeply concerned about their reporting's effects on the well-being of the average citizen.

This is an interesting question.....finally D won against B....B it says that the news report is going to make a negative impact. But last sentence clearly says that until people personally experience the news, they will not believe. So its a loser and D wins.

snehaamishraa · Answer

how to increase accuracy, in critical reasoning

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  snehaamishraa . You may want to check out  The Ultimate CR Guide for Beginners  by  GMATNinja  for a primer in CR strategy. I would also recommend  Mod Nightblade's Quick Guide to CR Proficiency , which has further recommendations for resources. Finally, you can swing over to YouTube to check out some of the CR videos by the same GMAT Ninja, or you can find them more systematically by checking out the link to  All GMAT Ninja LIVE YouTube Videos by Topic .

That should get you started at least. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

8Harshitsharma · Answer

Option B can also be ruled out based on the fact that it doesn't explain what "negative impact" means. Is it on the economy? we don't know. Eliminate.

arkaja11 · Answer

I understand the solution but I have a BIG DOUBT in the question wording -

We are choosing option D because it is said that "people do not defer to journalists except on matters of which they have no direct experience". This implies that people would not defer on matters related to economy (because everyone has direct experience of it every day).

Now how can I say - News reports about the economy are unlikely to have a significant effect on people's opinions about the state of the economy.

My reasoning is : If news reports on economy is pessimistic, people are likely to not defer from journalist's opinions. Hence, this pessimistic news reporting indeed is informing people that economy is now in bad shape.

Are we assuming that people themselves are aware about the poor economy without reading/listerning any news?

If yes, then I can say that news reports about the economy are unlikely to have a significant effect.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Critics worry that pessimistic news reports about the economy harm it

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Critics worry that pessimistic news reports about the economy harm it

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