Logical and Critical Thinking Flashcards

A marketing manager argues, "To boost our online sales, we must increase our social media advertising budget by 30%." Which of the following is a necessary assumption for this argument to be logically sound?

Answer: The target audience for the company's products actively uses social media and is influenced by advertising on those platforms.

The argument connects an increased budget with increased sales. This logic only holds if the target customers are present on social media and are receptive to ads. Without this, spending more money would have no effect on sales, making it a necessary underlying assumption.

A company has the following policies: 1. All employees in the Finance department must pass a compliance exam. 2. Any employee who manages a budget of over $10,000 must be in the Finance department. 3. David manages a budget of $15,000. Based on these statements, which of the following MUST be true?

Answer: David has passed the compliance exam.

According to Rule 2, since David manages a budget over $10,000, he must be in the Finance department. According to Rule 1, all employees in the Finance department must pass the compliance exam. Therefore, it logically follows that David must have passed the compliance exam.

A manager states, "Our team's productivity has dropped significantly over the past month. This must be due to the new open-office layout we implemented four weeks ago, as that's the only major change." Which of the following statements, if true, would most seriously weaken the manager's conclusion?

Answer: The company's main software server experienced unprecedented downtime and performance issues throughout the past month.

The manager's conclusion rests on the assumption that the office layout is the only possible cause. The server downtime introduces a strong, alternative explanation for a drop in productivity, directly challenging the manager's premise and thus weakening the argument.

A study of customer support tickets reveals the following: 70% of all submitted tickets are related to password resets. Of the tickets that are *not* related to password resets, 50% are about billing inquiries. All other tickets concern product feature requests. Based on this information, what is the most reasonable conclusion?

Answer: Billing inquiries account for 15% of the total support tickets.

If 70% of tickets are for password resets, the remaining 30% are for other issues. The problem states that 50% of this remainder are for billing. Calculating 50% of 30% (0.50 * 0.30) equals 0.15, or 15% of the total tickets.

A speaker argues, "Every successful entrepreneur I've read about dropped out of college. Therefore, to become a successful entrepreneur, one should drop out of college." What is the primary logical fallacy in this reasoning?

Answer: Hasty Generalization

The argument makes a broad conclusion about all aspiring entrepreneurs based on a limited and likely unrepresentative sample of famous cases. This is a Hasty Generalization, as the evidence is insufficient to support such a sweeping statement.

A company observes that its sales of ice cream are highest during the months when it spends the most on advertising for its new line of winter coats. Which of the following is the most logical explanation for this correlation?

Answer: A third factor, such as the holiday shopping season, is likely influencing both higher advertising spending and increased consumer purchasing in general.

This is a classic case of correlation not implying causation. It is highly improbable that coat ads directly cause ice cream sales. A confounding variable, like the Q4 holiday season, provides a much more logical explanation, as overall consumer spending and advertising budgets both tend to increase during that period.