Salespeople always steer customers toward products from which th

Question

Salespeople always steer customers toward products from which they make their highest commissions, and all salespeople in major health stores work on commission. Hence, when you buy vitamin supplements in a major health store, you can be sure that the claims the salespeople make about the quality of the products are inaccurate.

The reasoning in the argument is flawed in that the argument

offers as a premise a claim that merely paraphrases the conclusion and for which no support is provided"

infers that some claims are inaccurate solely on the basis of the source of those claims"

infers that just because a group of people has a certain property, each member of the group has that property"

takes a condition that is sufficient for the conclusion to be true as one that is necessary for the conclusion to be true"

relies on the claims of an authority on a topic outside that authority's area of expertise

LSAT

Sreyoshi007 · Answer

Can someone please explain how answer option B is correct? I chose C because the argument is talking about salespeople in general but we cannot conclude that every salesperson will behave the exact same way. Where am I going wrong? Let me know, thanks!

aroraishita02 · Answer

IMO B and here is my explanation.

Salespeople always steer customers toward products from which they make their highest commissions, and all salespeople in major health stores work on commission. Hence, when you buy vitamin supplements in a major health store, you can be sure that the claims the salespeople make about the quality of the products are inaccurate.

Conclusion: Claims that the salespeople make about quality of products in a major health store are inaccurate.
Premise 1: Salespeople always steer customers towards products that give them highest commission
Premise 2: All salespeople in major health store work on commission

Flaw: just because salespeople steer customers towards high commission products does not mean that their claims about quality of products is inaccurate; it is possible that the high commission products may be high quality products as well.

offers as a premise a claim that merely paraphrases the conclusion and for which no support is provided"
 Incorrect. Conclusion is not a paraphrasing of any of the premises.

infers that some claims are inaccurate solely on the basis of the source of those claims"
 Correct. The argument concludes that claims made by SALESPEOPLE are inaccurate.

infers that just because a group of people has a certain property, each member of the group has that property"
 Incorrect. The argument talks about salespeople as a group in the premise as well as the conclusion.

takes a condition that is sufficient for the conclusion to be true as one that is necessary for the conclusion to be true"
Incorrect. Out of scope.

relies on the claims of an authority on a topic outside that authority's area of expertise
 Incorrect. Out of scope.

AkritaJam · Answer

The correct answer choice is (B)

Because salespeople in major health stores work on commission, the author suspects that they are lying about the quality of the products they sell. Also known as an ad hominem, this type of flawed argument attacks the person (or source) instead of the argument they advance. Here, the author focuses on the alleged motives of the salespeople without offering any evidence that their claims are actually inaccurate. This is a Source Argument error, which agrees with the answer choice (B).

Answer choice (A): There is no circular argument here because the premise presented is different from the conclusion.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. The author infers that some claims are inaccurate solely because the salespeople making them (i.e. the source) have a vested interest in selling their products.

Answer choice (C): There is no evidence that the author attributes a characteristic of the whole group to a part of the group. Granted, the argument begins by making a general claim about all salespeople, but immediately thereafter focuses on salespeople working in major health stores. Because the second clause of the first sentence serves as a premise for the main conclusion, the argument cannot be said to contain an Error of Division.

Answer choice (D): There is no evidence suggesting that the argument contains an error in conditional reasoning.

Answer choice (E): The author does not make an appeal to authority in reaching her conclusion. There is no evidence of an appeal fallacy.

rajamech · Answer

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice.

sssanskaar · Answer

Pretty straightforward question. - Option B it is.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Salespeople always steer customers toward products from which th

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Salespeople always steer customers toward products from which th

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