Decision makers tend to have distinctive styles. One such style is for

Question

Decision makers tend to have distinctive styles. One such style is for the decision maker to seek the widest possible input from advisers and to explore alternatives while making up his or her mind. In fact, decision makers of this sort will often argue vigorously for a particular idea, emphasizing its strong points and downplaying its weaknesses, not because they actually believe in the idea but because they want to see if their real reservations about it are idiosyncratic or are held independently by their advisers.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the statements above?

(A) If certain decision makers’ statements are quoted accurately and at length, the content of the quote could nonetheless be greatly at variance with the decision eventually made.

(B) Certain decision makers do not know which ideas they do not really believe in until after they have presented a variety of ideas to their advisers.

(C) If certain decision makers dismiss an idea out of hand, it must be because its weaknesses are more pronounced than any strong points it may have.

(D) Certain decision makers proceed in a way that makes it likely that they will frequently decide in favor of ideas in which they do not believe.

(E) If certain decision makers’ advisers know the actual beliefs of those they advise, those advisers will give better advice than they would if they did not know those beliefs.

Source: LSAT

TommyWallach · Accepted Answer

Hey All,

Vigorous discussion here, so I thought I'd weigh in. As always, the devil is in the details.

Conclusion: (None, this is a Draw a Conclusion Question)

Premise: Some decision makers argue in favor of ideas they don't believe in order to see what others think about them.

(A) If certain decision makers’ statements are quoted accurately and at length, the content of the quote could nonetheless be greatly at variance with the decision eventually make.
Answer: We've been told decision makers often argue in favor of ideas they don't believe. Also, notice the use of the word "could". Words like that are very common in correct answers to Draw a Conclusion Questions.

(B) Certain decision makers do not know which ideas they do not really believe in until after they have pre-sented a variety of ideas to their advisers
Problem: The passage says that they will argue in favor of ideas they don't believe, not that they don't know which ideas they believe.

(C) If certain decision makers dismiss an idea out of hand, it must be because its weaknesses are more pro-nounced than any strong points it may have.
Problem: This answer choice is so logical that it almost certainly isn't right. In other words, we're likely to think that the only reason someone would dismiss something out of hand is because its a crappy idea ("weaknesses are more pronounced than strong points"). But this is NOT explicitly stated in the passage. Whenever you look at a Draw a Conclusion Question, you need to stick very close to what's written. The passage says nothing about why people dismiss ideas, only why they might be arguing in favor of them.

(D) Certain decision makers proceed in a way that makes it likely that they will frequently decide in favor of ideas in which they do not believe.
Problem: There is no implication in the passage that decision makers end up deciding in favor of the ideas they don't believe, only that they will ARGUE in favor of ideas they don't believe.

(E) If certain decision makers’ advisers know the actual beliefs of those they advise, those advisers will give better advice than they would if they did not know those beliefs.
Problem: We know nothing about the advisers from the passage.

Hope that helps!

Tommy Wallach
ManhattanGMAT

nitya34 · Answer

IMO B 
its a tough one
main point/conclusion is
..."not because they(decision makers) actually believe in the idea but because they want to see if their real reserva-tions about it are idiosyncratic or are held independently by their advisers."

ritula · Answer

Really tough one.I dnt think it shld be B. bcos the ideas are not presented to the advisers, but are actually taken (see highlited area)well coming back to the right coices, Im not able 2 decide b/w C and D
@priyankur, wht is the source and in which difficulty level is it mentioned?

aielman · Answer

A real tough cookie.

I am confused between B & D.

I think D is the most probable choice, because B talks about the belief of a decision maker. A decision maker may have an opinion or belief about a particular decision but before acting on it he/she will be counselled by the advisers. Since this option talks about the belief of a DM i don't think this should be the answer.

Option D tells us that he downplays the disadvantages of a particular decision and emphasizes the strong points of it, which tells us that he approaches a decision by looking at the positive aspects of it/

Option C didn't fit, cos the DM doesn't want to dismiss an idea without consulting his advisers, he is of the opinion that his reservations may be idiosyncratic.

Technext · Answer

Decision makers tend to have distinctive styles. One such style is for the decision maker to seek the widest possible input from advisers and to explore alternatives while making up his or her mind. In fact, decision makers of this sort will often argue vigorously for a particular idea, emphasizing its strong points and downplaying its weaknesses, not because they actually believe in the idea but because they want to see if their real reservations about it are idiosyncratic or are held independently by their advisers.

Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the statement above?

Explanation :
--------------------------
( A ) If certain decision makers’ statements are quoted accurately and at length, the content of the quote could nonetheless be greatly at variance with the decision eventually make. ---> This option looks better. As mentioned, decision makers are presenting their views (which they may not really believe in) to get others’ reaction. It’s not written that whichever idea they present before others is the one that finally gets implemented.  It may or may not be . The option just  expresses a possibility  (...could nonetheless...); it’s not saying for sure that  the  idea presented is actually  the  idea implemented.

( B ) Certain decision makers do not know which ideas they do not really believe in until after they have presented a variety of ideas to their advisers. ---> We cannot say this after reading the excerpt.  We might say that decision makers at least know what they believe in . Decision makers are just trying to know whether the idea that they vouch for is totally different from others or not.

@ ritula: Though it’s mentioned that they take input from advisors,  it’s also mentioned that they put forth their ideas to advisors  (last sentence of excerpt: ...independently by their advisers) to get their reactions in order to know whether their (decision makers) views are idiosyncratic or not.

( C ) If certain decision makers dismiss an idea out of hand, it must be because its weaknesses are more pronounced than any strong points it may have. ---> Though, the second part may be right, the first part is wrong. Decision makers are  not dismissing any idea out of hand ; everything goes through a  discussion process . Hence, discard it.

( D ) Certain decision makers proceed in a way that makes it likely that they will frequently decide in favor of ideas in which they do not believe. ---> This is not mentioned/suggested anywhere in the excerpt. They may take up an idea in which they do not believe in just to get others’ viewpoint but  this does not mean that they will likely decide in favour of such ideas .

( E ) If certain decision makers’ advisers know the actual beliefs of those they advise, those advisers will give better advice than they would if they did not know those beliefs. ---> This is not mentioned/suggested anywhere in the excerpt. Red Herring.
--------------------------

My choice is option  A . Good question. +1.

Hope that helps.

Regards,
Technext

scthakur · Answer

I chose A.

B - decision makers do believe in ideas, but they want to explore whether it is idiosyncratic with advisers.
C - decision makers do not dismiss idea plainly on the basis of pronounced weaknesses. They discuss in detail with advisors before taking decision.
D - This may be true. But, not always true.
E - not really.

vladmoney · Answer

man I chose A too, but it was because the other ones felt a bit off nothing to distinct. Whats OA

silasaaa2 · Answer

I chose A but not felt confident of my choice but nothing seemed relevant than A

if the decisionmakers dicuss the ideas which they dont't actually believe in just to see how know his advisers stancethen obviously  the decision makers quotes will be differ from the actual decision  this was emphasised in the statement A.

so my choice is A

subhashghosh · Answer

One more point, in this question you would want to find out an answer that is "necessarily" true and totally airtight, and not an answer that could/might be true because the genre of the question is "Must be true". All other possibilities apart from A are questionable as Tommy Wallach has pointed out, and A is the only one that can always be inferred absolutely.

Regards,
Subhash

Regards,
Subhash

hafizkarim · Answer

Hmm. Interesting question. Appears difficult, but not as tricky as some other 700+ level GMAT questions. Let's give this one ago. Before we get into the business of finding out the correct answer, lets analyse the question type to understand what we need to be looking for . Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the statement above? "Which one of the following is most strongly supported by the statement above? " The answer to the questions which have the question stem ...most strongly supported.." , must be 10000000% true. The GMAT definition of the "conclusion" kind of questions is that the conclusion must be able to withstand even the slightest scrutiny. So let's put on on our weatherman hat. Any weatherman who goes live national TV to say "It could rain tonight", can never be sued for making intentionally false statements :-)

.. When the weatherman uses the words "could rain", he implies that here is a possibility of rain. Of-course, if the weatherman were to say, It will rain tonight, now that's a whole different story. Let's understand that such a stringent requirement implies that the answer would most probably contain words such as "could, possibly" etc. . Let's get back to the question. Decision makers tend to have distinctive styles. One such style is for the decision maker to seek the widest possible input from advisers and to explore alternatives while making up his or her mind. In fact, decision mak-ers of this sort will often argue vigorously for a particular idea, emphasizing its strong points and downplaying its weaknesses, not because they actually believe in the idea but because they want to see if their real reserva-tions about it are idiosyncratic or are held independently by their advisers. (A) If certain decision makers’ statements are quoted accurately and at length, the content of the quote could nonetheless be greatly at variance with the decision eventually make. - :Let's come to this one at the end. (B) Certain decision makers do not know which ideas they do not really believe in until after they have presented a variety of ideas to their advisers This statement MAY be true in real world. But remember, we are in GMAT LA LA land, where the grass is always yellow and the answer stem has to be directly inferred from the question.. The passage makes an argument about how "certain decision makers" like to take an opposite stand about an argument only to hear what others have to say. This answer (B) is too generic and talks about other kinds of decision makers. (C) If certain decision makers dismiss an idea out of hand, it must be because its weaknesses are more pro-nounced than any strong points it may have. There is no mention in the passage about what makes a decision maker reject an idea out of hand. The passage merely talks about how certain decision maker arrive at a decision by taking an opposite stand. (D) Certain decision makers proceed in a way that makes it likely that they will frequently decide in favor of ideas in which they do not believe. Again, this answer may be true in real life, but this answer definitely cannot be inferred from the passage in the question stem ,. No sane decision maker will ever decide in favor of ideas in which they do not believe (E) If certain decision makers’ advisers know the actual beliefs of those they advise, those advisers will give better advice than they would if they did not know those beliefs. All the passage says is that certain decision makers take an opposite stand. There is no mention about how and why the advisers react the way they do. Ok, lets go back to (A) If certain decision makers’ statements are quoted accurately and at length, the content of the quote could nonetheless be greatly at variance with the decision eventually make. Note the use of the word "could". This is a positive sign. One cannot really argue against arguments that use the word such as "could", "may", "possibly:. This answer stem (A) is a restatement of the passage that , Certain decision makers take opposite positions about an argument . So if one were to record the initial statements of the decision makers and then compare these initial statements with the final decision, it is very possible that the initial statements could be at odds with the final decision VOILA !

shwetasood · Answer

should one expect to see a question like this in the gmat exam??

SafSin28 · Answer

QS: MUST BE TRUE

Decision makers=DM. DM--->Dist.styles.
Make up his own<--->(wid.pos.input+alternatives)
emphasizing its strong points and downplaying its weaknesses---->idiosyncratic/independent.

(A) If certain statements are accuratel and at length---->the content could nonetheless be  greatly at variance with the decision eventually made .

(B) Certain decision makers do not know which ideas they do not really believe in until after they have presented a variety of ideas to their advisers.--->know/don't know? it is not given in the argument

(C) If certain decision makers dismiss an idea out of hand, it must be because its weaknesses are more pronounced than any strong points it may have.----->We are not told about dismissing an idea!

(D) Certain decision makers proceed in a way that makes it likely that they will frequently decide in favor of ideas in which they do not believe.---->some D.Ms favor what they believe/don't believe? OUT

(E) If certain decision makers’ advisers know the actual beliefs of those they advise, those advisers will give better advice than they would if they did not know those beliefs.---->The actual beliefs? OUT

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