Advertisement: Fabric-Softener, when used while washing clothes leaves

Question

Advertisement: Fabric-Softener, when used while washing clothes leaves clothes soft and fluffy. The perfume in it gives a light to senses. This we say as per the test result which we conducted over 100 consumers to prove Fabric-Soft is best. In the test, each consumer was given one towel washed with Fabric-Soft and one towel washed without it. Ninety-nine percent of the consumers agreed that the Fabric-Soft towel was the best. So Fabric-Soft is the most effective fabric softener available.

The advertisement's reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it fails to consider whether

A. any of the consumers tested are allergic to fabric softeners
B. Fabric-Soft is more or less harmful to the environment than other fabric softeners
C. Fabric-Soft is much cheaper or more expensive than other fabric softeners
D. the consumers tested find the benefits of using fabric softeners worth the expense
E. the consumers tested had the opportunity to evaluate fabric softeners other than Fabric-Soft

abelka · Answer

A. any of the consumers tested are allergic to fabric softeners
B. Fabric-Soft is more or less harmful to the environment than other fabric softeners
C. Fabric-Soft is much cheaper or more expensive than other fabric softeners
D. the consumers tested find the benefits of using fabric softeners worth the expense
 E. the consumers tested had the opportunity to evaluate fabric softeners other than Fabric-Soft - CORRECT

jaggernaut1304 · Answer

The argument says that the group were given one washed with Fabric-Soft and the one washed without it and finally concludes saying the above mentioned Fabric-Soft is the best available in market. So the study group hasnt gotten a chance to compare The Fabric-Softner given in the survey and the other fabric softners available in market.
IMO E

RohitSaluja · Answer

Hi  VeritasKarishma   EducationAisle , through process of elimination, I come down to option E but I am not sure how does it impact the conclusion, Below is my reasoning.

In drawing conclsuion of the argument, author has made a jump from "Ninety-nine percent of the consumers agreed that the Fabric-Soft towel was the  best .." to " So Fabric-Soft is the  most effective  fabric softener available."

Premise: Leaves clothes soft and fluffy, clothes smell good , 99% of consumer agreed that it is the best

A. any of the consumers tested are allergic to fabric softeners   This has no direct bearing on the argument, fabric soft can still be the most effective softner available, even if some of the consumer are alergic to it

B. Fabric-Soft is more or less harmful to the environment than other fabric softeners   Conclusion is not the fabric soft is env. friendly, so this is not under our purview, hence eliminate

C. Fabric-Soft is much cheaper or more expensive than other fabric softeners   Nothing is mentioned about cost in the argument, conclsuion hinges on most efffective not on cheapest

D. the consumers tested find the benefits of using fabric softeners worth the expense   Same as C

E. the consumers tested had the opportunity to evaluate fabric softeners other than Fabric-Soft   This is the only option that could potentially weaken. Conclusion says it is the  most-effective  softner available, to determine whether softner is most-effective or not, we would need to test other softner as well. Now, if consumer tested other softner, then this option strengthens the conclusion , while if consumer didn't test the other softner, then it could draw red flags on the conclusions   As this option could swing either way, how do we know it would weaken the argument

Appreciate your time and response on this one.

IanStewart · Answer

That's not quite what the argument says: it says 99% of consumers agreed the Fabric-Soft towel was better, when compared with a towel that had no fabric softener at all. That doesn't tell us anything about how Fabric-Soft compares to other brands of fabric softener; it only tells us people like fabric softener.

It's a bit like an argument that said:  Our restaurant gave customers raw potatoes, and potatoes cooked by our restaurant's head chef. 99% of customers preferred the potatoes cooked by our chef. Therefore our chef is the best chef in the city.  The conclusion doesn't follow, because the chef wasn't compared to other chefs at all; the chef was only compared to "no cooking". All this argument really suggests is that people like cooked potatoes.

RohitSaluja · Answer

Hi  IanStewart  thanks for the prompt response. The argument says that consumer were given two types of towels one washed with fabric softner and the other not(so it could be that they were not even washed with any other softner). and this is clearly mentioned in the argument "99% of consumer agreed that it is the best".

Although the main query that i have is given E could swing either way, how do we select it as correct option choice.

IanStewart · Answer

And recently I've noticed several questions posted to this forum that are tagged "Official LSAT" questions that just read like random words thrown together. The above obviously is not in English, and would never appear on the actual LSAT. There is a similar official LSAT question about "Fabric-Soft" from a 2007 test, but the wording is very different from what I quote above -- it's not a matter of a typo or two. For example, above it says "The perfume in it gives a light to senses" which is meaningless. The original says "Its fresh scent is a delight", which makes sense.

Where are these terrible copies of LSAT questions from, and why, when the official 2007 LSAT test is publicly available online, are the genuine (and comprehensibly-written) versions not being posted instead?

RohitSaluja · Answer

Hi  Bunuel , can you please update the tag as per  IanStewart  post.

IanStewart · Answer

Just to make sure two things are clear - quoting directly from the question, it says:

"each consumer was given one towel washed with Fabric-Soft and one towel washed without it."

which I would interpret to mean "one towel had Fabric-Soft fabric softener, and the other towel had no fabric softener" (though we aren't given enough information to be completely sure that's what this sentence means).

The question doesn't say that. Quoting from it, it says:

"Ninety-nine percent of the consumers agreed that the Fabric-Soft towel was the best. "

which, in context, means 99% preferred the Fabric-Soft towel to the other towel, that (presumably) didn't use fabric softener at all. When you change the wording to "99% of consumers agree Fabric-Soft is best", that suggests that almost all consumers prefer it to other fabric softeners, but the argument never tells us how Fabric-Soft compares to other fabric softeners. And that's the most obvious problem with the argument, and is why E is right. The other problem with the argument is that it never defines "effective", so even if 99% of consumers genuinely preferred Fabric-Soft to other fabric softeners, that doesn't mean it's the "most effective", since people can like things that are not especially effective.

chetan2u · Answer

Hi,

I would agree with  IanStewart  that the language of the argument does put the 'source as OfficialLSAT' to suspect, although the argument seems to be Ok

However, if I just talk of option E, you are correct that the conclusion could be strengthened or weakened depending on the use of fabric softener in other towel.
And,  'That is what the argument is vulnerable to' . It does not take this point into consideration.

So, VULNERABLE would not necessarily mean weakening the argument or conclusion, it would mean FLAW in the reasoning.
Here E points to that flaw. Does not matter whether the argument is strengthened or weakened when the flaw is removed.

KarishmaB · Answer

RohitSaluja  - Read the entire question stem along with the correct option.

The advertisement's reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it fails to consider whether the consumers tested had the opportunity to evaluate fabric softeners other than Fabric-Soft.

Makes sense, right?

The argument says that consumers were given Fabric-Soft towels vs no softener towels and they liked Fabric-Soft towels better. On the basis of this, it is concluding that "Fabric-Soft is the most effective fabric softener available."

This argument is vulnerable to criticism. What is the criticism?
That it fails to consider whether the consumers had the opportunity to evaluate other fabric softeners too. This is correct. The argument doesn't tell us whether the consumers considered other fabric softeners too so how can they say which softener is the best and that is the problem with the argument. This is the failing of the argument - that it doesn't provide us this relevant data. What exactly the data would say and how it would impact our argument is out of scope. The problem with the argument is that this data is missing.

Answer (E)

Advertisement: Fabric-Softener, when used while washing clothes leaves

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