On average, corporations that encourage frequent social events in the

Question

On average, corporations that encourage frequent social events in the workplace show higher profits than those that rarely do. This suggests that the EZ Corporation could boost its profits by having more staff parties during business hours.

Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the argument above?

(A) The great majority of corporations that encourage frequent social events in the workplace do so at least in part because they are already earning above-average profits.

(B) Corporations that have frequent staff parties after business hours sometimes have higher profits than do corporations that have frequent staff parties during business hours.

(C) The EZ Corporation already earns above-average profits, and it almost never brings play into the workplace.

(D) Frequent social events in a corporate workplace leave employees with less time to perform their assigned duties than they would otherwise have.

(E) At one time the EZ Corporation encouraged social events in the workplace more frequently than it currently does, but it has not always been one of the most profitable corporations of its size.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

EXPLANATION FROM Fox LSAT

Correlation = causation?! No way. The argument basically says, “Rich people have a lot of parties, so if you want to be rich, you should have a lot of parties.” That’s just silly. To weaken a correlation=causation argument, I’m going to look for the reversal of cause and effect (something like, “Actually, being profitable causes companies to have more parties”) or an alternative explanation (something like, “Companies with exceptionally creative employees are more profitable AND tend to have more parties”).

A) Bingo! This is the reversal of cause and effect. For a question that comes so late in the section, this one is surprisingly easy.

B) “Sometimes” makes this answer choice very weak. “Sometimes” just means “at least once.” But the evidence was about companies “on average,” so what happens at least once is really not a very powerful retort. A, on the other hand, which is about “the great majority of corporations that encourage social events,” is much stronger and therefore a much better weakener.

C) Just because the EZ Corporation is already making above-average profits without parties does not mean it couldn’t make even higher profits  with  parties. This is not a good answer.

D) This answer completely ignores the fact, as stated, that companies that have parties make more money than companies that don’t. Not a good answer.

E) The history of the EZ Corporation is really not relevant.

Our answer is A.

sivatx2 · Answer

(A) The great majority of corporations that encourage frequent social events in the workplace do so at least in part because they are already earning above-average profits. 
 This provides the reasoning why companies with above average profits has higher frequency of social events. It because they have higher profit they can spend money on social events. Hence this provides reasoning to weaken the argument. Keep

(B) Corporations that have frequent staff parties after business hours sometimes have higher profits than do corporations that have frequent staff parties during business hours. 
 After hour parties are irrelevant to the argument. We are discussing only about staff parties during business hours. Out of scope. Eliminate

(C) The EZ Corporation already earns above-average profits, and it almost never brings play into the workplace. 
 We are looking option to boost the profit and hence above-average profit is irrelevant to the argument. Eliminate

(D) Frequent social events in a corporate workplace leave employees with less time to perform their assigned duties than they would otherwise have. 
 We don't know whether less time to perform duties has adverse effect on boosting the profit. This may or may not weaken. Eliminate

(E) At one time the EZ Corporation encouraged social events in the workplace more frequently than it currently does, but it has not always been one of the most profitable corporations of its size. 
 During the past time when there were more social events was there boost/decline in profit for EZ? This is a distraction and does not weaken the argument as it is irrelevant. Eliminate

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

tanishqgirotra · Answer

hi Experts,

Aren't we assuming in option A that the EZ corporation is NOT earning above average profits? What if the EZ is already earning above avg profits and wants to boost its profit more? lil debatable, isn't it?

Avinash_g · Answer

Yes, I felt the same, in the argument it said to boost the profits. so the EZ corporation should be making some profits already.

VerbalBot · Answer

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On average, corporations that encourage frequent social events in the

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