LSAT 119 – Section 4 – Question 12

LSAT 119 - Section 4 - Question 12

June 2005

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT119 S4 Q12
+LR
+Exp
Flaw or descriptive weakening +Flaw
Sampling +Smpl
A
1%
152
B
2%
154
C
0%
154
D
92%
162
E
4%
157
120
131
144
 +Easiest 145.1 +SubsectionEasier

Several legislators claim that the public finds many current movies so violent as to be morally offensive. However, these legislators have misrepresented public opinion. In a survey conducted by a movie industry guild, only 17 percent of respondents thought that movies are overly violent, and only 3 percent found any recent movie morally offensive. These low percentages are telling, because the respondents see far more current movies than does the average moviegoer.

Summarize Argument: Counter-Position
The author concludes that the public generally does not find violent movies offensive, contrary to the claims of legislators. As support, he cites a survey of frequent moviegoers in which the majority of respondents did not find violent movies offensive.

Identify and Describe Flaw
The author draws a conclusion about public opinion based on an industry survey of frequent moviegoers. This is the cookie-cutter flaw of relying on an unrepresentative sample: he fails to consider that the views of frequent moviegoers might not be representative of the public as a whole.

A
attempts to undermine the legislators’ credibility instead of addressing their argument
The author does address their argument: the problem is that his rebuttal is flawed, not that he didn’t make a rebuttal.
B
bases its conclusion on subjective judgments rather than on an objective criterion of moral offensiveness
The relevant criterion is subjective judgments (what the public thinks of violent movies), so this can’t be the flaw.
C
fails to consider the possibility that violent movies increase the prevalence of antisocial behavior
The argument in the stimulus is about what fraction of the public disapproves of violent movies. The actual consequences of the movies are irrelevant; what matters is what the public thinks.
D
generalizes from a sample that is unlikely to be representative of public sentiment
This is the cookie-cutter flaw of relying on an unrepresentative sample. The author commits this by citing a survey of frequent moviegoers as definitive evidence. They might differ from the public as a whole. So they can’t be used to draw a conclusion about the public in general.
E
presumes, without providing justification, that the people surveyed based their responses on a random sampling of movies
Whether the respondents had a random sample of movies is irrelevant: the argument is about what people in general think of violent movies. It doesn’t matter if their choice of movies is non-random. The problem is that the respondents themselves aren’t randomly sampled.

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LSAT PrepTest 119 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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