LSAT 134 – Section 3 – Question 26

LSAT 134 - Section 3 - Question 26

October 2011

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Question QuickView	Type	Tags	Answer Choices	Curve	Question Difficulty	Psg/Game/S Difficulty	Explanation
PT134 S3 Q26	+LR	Sufficient assumption +SA Conditional Reasoning +CondR Link Assumption +LinkA	A 11% 161 B 8% 160 C 17% 163 D 14% 162 E 50% 168	156 165 175	+Hardest	146.872 +SubsectionMedium

Acquiring complete detailed information about all the pros and cons of a product one might purchase would clearly be difficult and expensive. It is rational not to acquire such information unless one expects that the benefits of doing so will outweigh the cost and difficulty of doing so. Therefore, consumers who do not bother to acquire such information are thereby behaving rationally.

Summary

The author concludes that consumers who don’t bother to acquire complete detailed info about all pros/cons are behaving rationally.
This is based on the following premise:
If you don’t expect that the benefits of acquiring the complete info will outweigh the cost and difficulty of acquiring that info, then it’s rational not to acquire the info.

Missing Connection

The premise allows us to reach the conclusion that not acquiring complete detailed info is rational — if you don’t expect the benefits of getting that info to outweigh the costs and difficulty of getting the info, it’s rational not to get the info. We want to learn that consumers who don’t bother to get the info do not expect the benefits of getting the info to outweigh the costs and difficulty of getting the info.

Rational consumers who do not expect that the benefits outweigh the cost and difficulty of acquiring detailed information about a product they might purchase usually do not bother to acquire such information.

(A) tells me about what rational consumers do. But we’re trying to prove that a certain kind of consumer IS rational. Learning something about what rational consumers do doesn’t prove that someone is rational.

Whenever it is rational not to acquire detailed information about a product, it would be irrational to bother to acquire such information.

(B) tells us what’s true “whenever it is rational not to acquire detailed info about a product.” But we’re trying to prove that it’s rational not to acquire such info. Learning about what would be true WHEN it’s rational not to get such info doesn’t establish that it IS rational not to get the info.

The benefits of acquiring detailed information about a product one might purchase usually do not outweigh the cost and difficulty of doing so.

Whether the benefits actually outweigh the costs is irrelevant, because the premise concerns someone’s EXPECTATIONS about whether the benefits outweigh the costs. What matters is what consumers who don’t get complete info EXPECT about benefits/costs.

Rational consumers usually expect that the benefits of acquiring detailed information about a product they might purchase would not outweigh the cost and difficulty of doing so.

(D) tells me about what rational consumers expect. But we’re trying to prove that a certain kind of consumer IS rational. Learning something about what rational consumers expect doesn’t prove that someone is rational.

Consumers who do not bother to acquire complete detailed information about a product they might purchase do not expect that the benefits of acquiring such information will outweigh the cost and difficulty of doing so.

(E) tells us that consumers who don’t get complete info do not expect the benefits of getting the info to outweigh the costs/difficulty of getting it. This triggers the rule in the premise and allows us to conclude that for these consumers, it’s rational not to acquire the info.

Original statement:
it is rational not to acquire such info unless one expects that the benefits of doing so will outweigh the cost and difficulty of doing so

Two ideas:
rational not acquire info
expects benefits outweigh c&d

Group 3 Rule: negate sufficient
[not] expects benefits outweigh c&d --> rational not acquire info

Contrapositive:
[not] rational not acquire info --> expects benefits outweigh c&d

LSAT 134 – Section 3 – Question 26

LSAT 134 - Section 3 - Question 26

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LSAT PrepTest 134 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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