A recent study has concluded that, contrary to the claim of those

Question

A recent study has concluded that, contrary to the claim of those trying to ban cigarette advertisements altogether, cigarette ads placed on bill boards and in magazines have little to no effect on the smoking habits of the smokers who views the ads. The study, which surveyed more than 20,000 smokers and solicited their reasons for continuing to smoke, found that practically no one in the survey felt that these advertisements influenced their decision to smoke.

The study's conclusion is based upon which of the following assumptions.

A) people do not switch cigarette brands based on their exposure to cigarette ads on bill boards and in magazines.

B) Cigarette ads on bill boards and in magazines do not encourage non smokers to take up the habit.

C) Banning cigarette ads altogether will encourage people to give up smoking

D) people are consciously aware of all reasons they choose to smoke

E) People who decide to smoke do so for rational reasons.

OA is D....

My doubt: In assumption question we can go for external details, in this argument study was based on the smokers reaction with cigarette ads placed on billboards and magazines. This argument failed to include non smokers reaction to the ads.

So as in option B we may assume that these ads do not encourage non smokers to take up the habit.( Assumption Q)

But in option D, it can be inferred that smokers are aware of the reasons of their smoking.( inference Q)

So, why option D but not B is correct.

vivesomnium · Answer

To find the assumption behind the conclusion of the study, we need to understand the study first.
 Who was studied?  The study, which surveyed more than  20,000 smokers  
 What did the study do?   and solicited their reasons for continuing to smoke
 What did the study conclude?  That the ads dont affect smoking behavior of  the smokers  who view these.
 Why did the study conclude this?  no one in the survey  felt  that these advertisements influenced their decision to smoke

okay now coming to the options:
A. Cigarette Brands? whoever talked of cigarette brands here? beyond the scope of the study at least in the context of present argument and conclusion. hence incorrect.
B. Non smokers: The study no where, to the best of our knowledge from the argumnet provided, talks of non smokers, It is a study which surveyed smokers, and talked of their reasons for continuting smoking. It didnt go to non smokers, so its conclusion is not even meant to apply to non smokers, why will it assume anything about non smokers then?
C. This is not an assumption, in fact it sounds like soething that the study would refute
D. Now the study bases its conclusion on what the smokers "felt". This means that the study assumes that the smokers know correctly and consciously what affects them or not, and thus this assumption option is correct. the study assumes that the smokers know for fact all the many fatcors which influence them, whihc might not be the case. the key word here is 'felt'
E. rationality of reasons is not of importance here, since neither smoking behavior nor advertismenets claim themselves to be on rational reasons in this argument's context.

amit2k9 · Answer

Between B and D,

B talks about non-smokers who are not being discussed here in the argument.If we negate this it doesn't really effect the conclusion about Smokers decision.

D If Smokers are not Consciously aware of their decision,there is a high probability that their decision might be effected by the Advertisements,subconsciously.

Thus D.

joinashish · Answer

thanks to explain..i understood it now...

sagarbuss · Answer

Request you to not to write OA in question window.

GGMU · Answer

Good ques... Option D 
B is incorrect as it talks about non smokers.

thangvietname · Answer

this is a hard question because
normally, we have to try to criticize the problem. but normal criticization would be

the person asked are not prepresentative

but we can not find an answer choice matching the above criticization.

look at the argument from different perspective

persons asked say thay are not influenced
conclusion: the advert is bad.

criticize: the person asked can not be concious
going to answer choices, D matches.

the hard question is the ones which stray away from the normal criticization we make. we can say thay difficulty level of a question depends on the distance between normal criticization we make and the true criticization in the OA.

narenaol · Answer

Main conclusion is that advertisements did not influenced smokers' decision to smoke.

a) people do not switch cigarette brands based on their exposure to cigarette ads on bill boards and in magazines.
---irrelevant as it talks about brands

b) Cigarette ads on bill boards and in magazines do not encourage non smokers to take up the habit.
---Talks about non smokers' decision and not about smokers' decision.

c) Banning cigarette ads altogether will encourage people to give up smoking
---Negation does not support main conclusion.

d) people are consciously aware of all reasons they choose to smoke
---Correct answer as it only talks about smokers' decision and reasons to smoke.

e) People who decide to smoke do so for rational reasons.
---Main conclusion has nothing to do with rational reasons.

daboo343 · Answer

Here the conclusion talks about smokers. but answer choice B talks about non smokers hence B is wrong.
Now come to option D people are consciously aware of all reasons they choose to smoke
means those smoke who are conscious about all the effects.
So ad doesn't influence their behavior. 
Negate it
People are not consciously aware of all the reasons they choose to smoke.
In that case smokers may get affeced by ads
Hence D

gmat1393 · Answer

Hi  nightblade354

Kindly put the highlighted part into spoiler.

Thanks!

nightblade354 · Answer

Question has been updated and should be good to go!

-- Mod Nightblade

Ray_Joshi · Answer

None of the explanations in the threads are convincing. An expert's take on the question would be appreciated!

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Which part did you find unconvincing? I'll take a guess and figure it may be that folks were too dismissive of B. When I first started reading the argument, I actually thought we wanted something like B, because the argument is just talking about the effect of the ads on smokers. It seemed to be leaving out the obvious point that NON-smokers might be influenced to smoke by the ads. But the second part of the argument covers that. Very few of the smokers believe that they BEGAN smoking because of ads. So as long as we accept that the smokers' beliefs are true (option D), then we know that non-smokers are not swayed by the ads. If that turns out not to be the case, then the argument falls apart.

Now we could still say that one way or another, the author is still assuming B. Even if the assumption is based on a premise, isn't it still an assumption that non-smokers aren't influenced? It isn't something we know to be true. That's where another look at the conclusion makes a difference. The conclusion is only about the effect ON SMOKERS. So all those who said non-smokers were irrelevant actually have a point. I don't think this is great argument design--why mention the "decision to smoke" if we're only talking about people who already smoke?--but it makes our decision clearer. D is needed either way, but B only matters if we're concerned with the overall effect of ads, not just the effect on smokers.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot:

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

This post was generated automatically.

A recent study has concluded that, contrary to the claim of those

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

A recent study has concluded that, contrary to the claim of those

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards