History provides many examples of technological innovations being

Question

History provides many examples of technological innovations being strongly resisted by people whose working conditions without those innovations were miserable. This shows that social inertia is a more powerful determinant of human behavior than is the desire for comfort or safety.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the reasoning in the argument?

(A) People correctly believe that technological innovations often cause job loss.
(B) People are often reluctant to take on new challenges.
(C) Some examples of technological innovation have been embraced by workers.
(D) People tend to adapt easily to gradually implemented technological innovations.
(E) People correctly believe that technological innovations almost always increase workers’ productivity.

siddharthkapoor · Answer

patto · Answer

History provides many examples of technological innovations being strongly resisted by people whose working conditions without those innovations were miserable. This shows that social inertia is a more powerful determinant of human behavior than is the desire for comfort or safety.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the reasoning in the argument? 
 (A)  People correctly believe that technological innovations often cause job loss.
 (B)  People are often reluctant to take on new challenges.
 (C)  Some examples of technological innovation have been embraced by workers.
 (D)  People tend to adapt easily to gradually implemented technological innovations.
 (E)  People correctly believe that technological innovations almost always increase workers’ productivity.

btrg · Answer

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the reasoning in the argument? 
 (A)  People correctly believe that technological innovations often cause job loss.
Correct - Take an example of computers. People initially had an idea somewhere in there mind that computers would be a cause for their job loss hence they resisted it. And they new that there life would be much easier if they used computers to work.

But the argument says that social inertia is a more powerful determinant of human behavior which is NOT the case, coz if someone thinks about Job safety then he/she do not takes into account OTHERS job so its not that they were socially united and resisted computers. And in fact, they knew that computers will make their life easier and comfortable.

nightblade354 · Answer

Merged topics.  patto , please check for duplicates posts in the future.

sssanskaar · Answer

The author is comparing social inertia with comfort to determine the acceptance of technological change.
To weaken the same, we need to show that the acceptance of technological change depends on an altogether different factor. Example:

Job losses, as mentioned in option A.

Raman109 · Answer

Understanding the argument - 
History provides many examples of technological innovations being strongly resisted by people whose working conditions without those innovations were miserable. - Background info. There are many examples of people with poor conditions resisting tech innovations.

This shows that social inertia is a more powerful determinant of human behavior than is the desire for comfort or safety. - Conclusion. Social inertia (poor conditions) is a more powerful determinant than comfort. Two random events happened and the author tries to correlate those. How do we weaken this? By providing an alternative reason for their behavior.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the reasoning in the argument?

(A) People correctly believe that technological innovations often cause job loss. - ok. Job losses are a powerful alternative reason.

(B) People are often reluctant to take on new challenges. - out of scope.

(C) Some examples of technological innovation have been embraced by workers. - some can be at least 1 which weakens by providing an exception. It's a weak, weakener. But what does the question stem ask about? "most seriously undermines the reasoning," so option A is the stronger one.

(D) People tend to adapt easily to gradually implemented technological innovations. - how the innovations are implemented is out of scope.

(E) People correctly believe that technological innovations almost always increase workers’ productivity. - out of scope.

unraveled · Answer

History provides many examples of technological innovations being strongly resisted by people whose working conditions without those innovations were miserable. This shows that social inertia is a more powerful determinant of human behavior than is the desire for comfort or safety.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the reasoning in the argument?

(A) People correctly believe that technological innovations often cause job loss. - CORRECT. Another reason for resisting something. So, conclusion is not true in the situation that it presents.
(B) People are often reluctant to take on new challenges. - WRONG. Irrelevant. 
(C) Some examples of technological innovation have been embraced by workers. - WRONG. Does not start well even though it looks a weakener but it weakens weakly. 
(D) People tend to adapt easily to gradually implemented technological innovations. - WRONG. Opposite to what we are looking as in to find the reson to not adapt than to adapt.
(E) People correctly believe that technological innovations almost always increase workers’ productivity. - WRONG. Like D only it touches an out of scope part.

Answer A.

VerbalBot · Answer

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History provides many examples of technological innovations being

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