PrepTest 108, Section 3, Question 19
Faden: Most of our exercise machines are still(50 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- AGreenwall takes for(16 more words not shown)
- BGreenwall presumes, without(11 more words not shown)
- CFaden presumes, without(18 more words not shown)
- DFaden presumes, without(19 more words not shown)
- EGreenwall ignores the(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A customer survey doesn't settle everything. My first question is who answered it. Maybe customers who still use and like the equipment are more likely to respond than customers who have abandoned it. We haven't established that problem, but it's something to check before trusting the survey as a picture of all the machines.
Greenwall raises a different concern: even the people who answer might not report their habits honestly. Someone could say, “Yes, I still use the exercise bike,” while the bike has actually become a place to hang shirts. Admitting that an expensive purchase sits unused can be embarrassing.
Faden's reply doesn't answer that concern. “You can't prove they're lying” is not the same as “Their answers are reliable.” Greenwall hasn't claimed to have caught the customers in a lie. Greenwall has pointed out a reason the survey might overstate how much the machines are used.
What we’re looking for
The flaw question should focus on that response. Faden acts as though an objection has no force unless it proves the evidence false. But we can have a reason to be less confident in the survey without knowing exactly who lied. The prediction is that Faden confuses raising a doubt with conclusively disproving the claim.
Working the answers
- A
Greenwall says customers could be lying. That's a possibility offered to challenge our confidence in the survey, not an assertion that many customers definitely stopped exercising and are definitely embarrassed. A makes Greenwall's claim stronger than it is.
- B
Greenwall doesn't claim that most people are dishonest. The comment concerns many of these customers who could lie about their exercise habits. “Many” doesn't have to mean more than half, and these customers aren't people in general. More basically, Greenwall is raising possible dishonesty, not assuming it has been established.
- C
Faden never says stronger evidence makes a claim less believable. Faden demands proof that customers lied and dismisses the objection because that proof is missing. C describes a strange response to having more evidence; Faden's response concerns the supposed lack of evidence for Greenwall's concern.
- DCorrect
A reason to doubt evidence isn't the same as proof that the evidence is false. Greenwall points out a possible weakness in relying on customers' self-reports. Faden treats the inability to prove dishonesty as a reason to dismiss that weakness altogether.
We don't have to decide that the survey is false to see the problem. Maybe most machines are still in use. Even so, embarrassment could make this survey less trustworthy as support for that conclusion. Faden needs to address the concern, not demand a complete disproof before taking it seriously.
- E
Some people could stop exercising and admit it without embarrassment. That would fit perfectly well with Greenwall's concern that many other customers might be embarrassed and lie. The objection doesn't depend on every former user reacting the same way, so acknowledging some honest, unembarrassed customers wouldn't defeat it.
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