LSAT Argument Flaw Identification 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Historian: Every civilization that expanded its territory rapidly eventually collapsed. The Roman Empire expanded rapidly. Therefore, the Roman Empire collapsed because it expanded rapidly. What is the flaw?
- It treats a correlating feature of collapsed civilizations as the definitive cause of collapse (Correct answer)
- It draws a hasty generalization from too few historical examples
- It commits a false analogy between Rome and modern states
- It confuses a necessary condition with a sufficient condition for collapse
Correct answer: It treats a correlating feature of collapsed civilizations as the definitive cause of collapse
Rapid expansion may be correlated with collapse without being the cause; many other factors may explain both expansion and eventual decline.
Question 2: Ethicist: Lying is always wrong because honesty is always right. What flaw does this reasoning contain?
- Circular reasoning — the wrongness of lying is assumed to prove itself via a restatement (Correct answer)
- False dichotomy — treating honesty and lying as the only moral options
- Equivocation — using 'right' in both a moral and correctional sense
- Slippery slope — assuming one lie leads to a pattern of deception
Correct answer: Circular reasoning — the wrongness of lying is assumed to prove itself via a restatement
Saying 'lying is wrong because honesty is right' restates the claim without providing an independent justification.
Question 3: Journalist: A poll of 500 Twitter users found that 80% oppose the new tax. Most Americans oppose the new tax. What is the flaw?
- The sample is biased because Twitter users are not representative of all Americans (Correct answer)
- The poll used leading questions that influenced respondents toward opposition
- The conclusion generalizes from too few respondents
- The poll fails to distinguish between types of taxes
Correct answer: The sample is biased because Twitter users are not representative of all Americans
Twitter users skew younger, more politically engaged, and less representative of the broader American population.
Question 4: Mechanic: This car is either broken or it just needs an oil change. It doesn't need an oil change. Therefore, it is broken. What potential flaw is present if the initial premise is wrong?
- The false dilemma flaw — the premise may omit other explanations for the car's condition (Correct answer)
- Denying the consequent — incorrectly negating the second condition to reach the conclusion
- Circular reasoning — the conclusion that the car is broken is assumed in the premise
- Post hoc fallacy — assuming the car broke down after skipping oil changes
Correct answer: The false dilemma flaw — the premise may omit other explanations for the car's condition
If there are other possibilities beyond 'broken' or 'needs an oil change,' the either-or premise is a false dichotomy and the argument fails.
Question 5: Sociologist: Countries with higher chocolate consumption tend to have more Nobel Prize winners per capita. Chocolate must boost cognitive performance. What flaw is present?
- It infers causation from a spurious correlation likely driven by a confounding variable (Correct answer)
- It commits a hasty generalization from the dietary habits of Nobel laureates
- It equivocates on 'cognitive performance' between creativity and academic achievement
- It appeals to scientific authority without peer-reviewed support
Correct answer: It infers causation from a spurious correlation likely driven by a confounding variable
Wealth likely drives both chocolate consumption and the resources needed to produce Nobel laureates, making this a textbook spurious correlation.
Question 6: Supervisor: Maria has been late three times this month. She is clearly an unreliable employee who will never meet deadlines. What flaws are present?
- Hasty generalization and an extreme conclusion drawn from insufficient evidence (Correct answer)
- Circular reasoning — unreliability is assumed to prove future lateness
- Ad hominem — attacking Maria's character rather than her work product
- False analogy — comparing lateness to missing project deadlines
Correct answer: Hasty generalization and an extreme conclusion drawn from insufficient evidence
Three incidents of tardiness are insufficient to conclude permanent, universal unreliability, and 'never' is an extreme extrapolation.
Question 7: Activist: Studies show that violent video games increase aggression in laboratory settings. Therefore, violent video games cause real-world violent crime. What is the flaw?
- It overgeneralizes from controlled lab conditions to complex real-world behavior (Correct answer)
- It appeals to authority by citing studies without evaluating their methodology
- It presents a false dichotomy between video games and other causes of crime
- It commits a post hoc fallacy about when violent crime increased
Correct answer: It overgeneralizes from controlled lab conditions to complex real-world behavior
Laboratory aggression measures and real-world violent crime are very different outcomes; the gap between them is not bridged by the cited studies.
LSAT Argument Flaw Identification 5
Historian: Every civilization that expanded its territory rapidly eventually collapsed.
The Roman Empire expanded rapidly.
Therefore, the Roman Empire collapsed because it expanded rapidly.
What is the flaw?