CLASSIC FLAWS

Question 1

If you ride a wild horse, you’re of an adventurous sort. All adventurous sorts desire the thrill of the new. So, if you desire the thrill of the new, then you are an adventurous sort.

Answer 1

Bad conditional reasoning

Question 2

Fatigue syndrome is associated with low blood magnesium levels. Malabsorption of magnesium is associated with some types of fatigue. Therefore, raising blood magnesium levels would cure chronic fatigue syndrome.

Answer 2

Bad causal reasoning

Question 3

Each of the elements of Garelli’s recently completed design for a university library is copied from a different one of several historic libraries. The design includes various features from classical Greek, Islamic mogul, and Romanesque structures. Since no one element in the design can be considered original it follows that the design of the library cannot be considered original.

Answer 3

Whole-to-Part

Question 4

Leanna was very clever on her shark paper, so Leanna must be very clever in general.

Answer 4

Over generalization

Question 5

A Survey of alumni from the 1960 class at Aurora University yielded puzzling results. When asked to indicate their academic rank, half of the respondents indicated they were in the top 25% of the graduating class.

Answer 5

Survey problems

Question 6

Two groups are enrolled in a study on exercise and health outcomes. Group one exercises and group 2 does not. Group one ends the study with better health outcomes than group one. Therefore exercise is responsible for good health.

Answer 6

False starts

Question 7

Despite best efforts of astronomers, no one has yet succeeded and exchanging messages with intelligent life on other planets, or other solar systems. In fact, no one has managed to prove that any kind of extraterrestrial life exists. Thus there is clearly no intelligent life anywhere, but on earth.

Answer 7

Possibility does not equal certainty

Question 8

Bank deposits are credited on the date of the transaction when made before 3 PM Alicia knows the transaction was made before 3 PM so she must know the deposit will be credited for the date of the transaction

Answer 8

Implication

Question 9

Commentator: because of teacher hiring freezes the quality of education in that country will not improve. Thus it will surely deteriorate.

Answer 9

False dichotomy

Question 10

Student representative: our university is expelling a student who verbally harassed his roommate, thus penalizing the student for doing what he has a right to do: speak his mind!
Dean: So what you’re saying is the university should endorse verbal harassment.

Answer 10

Strawman

Question 11

John says the herbal drink won’t work to cure my sinus infection, but John works for Big Pharma, so he has to protect his own interests. Therefore the herbal drink is probably an effective cure.

Answer 11

Ad Hominem

Question 12

Explaining string theory is pointless. Sure, explaining complex concepts, may seem like a worthy aim, but in this case, since it will never work, there’s no point in doing so.

Answer 12

Circular Reasoning

Question 13

Samantha: my new workout plan is fantastic. My arms have never been stronger so maybe I should intervene in a complex foreign political conflict.

Answer 13

Equivocation

Question 14

Most people believe yawning is most powerfully triggered by seeing someone else yawn. This belief about yawning is widespread not only today, but also has been common place in many parts of the world in the past if we are to believe historians of popular culture. thus, seeing someone else yawn must be the most irresistible cause of yawning there is.

Answer 14

Appeal fallacy - invalid appeal to public opinion

Question 15

Office manager: We need the best paper for the office. I will not order recycled paper, which could be inferior.

Stationary supplier: recycled paper is not necessarily inferior. From the beginning, the finest paper was made from rags only when demand increased in the 1850s did paper manufacturers switch to wood fiber, which was more readily available.

Answer 15

Irrelevant

Question 16

It’s common for people to mistakenly believe left-handed people are more prone to accidents than right handed people. But this is just a myth, as indicated by the fact that more household accidents are caused by right-handed people than left-handed people.

Answer 16

Percentages do not equal numbers

Question 17

Tariq sold 1000 more yo-yos today than he did yesterday therefore his share of the market percentage must have risen considerably.

Answer 17

Percentages do not equal numbers

Question 18

Current efforts to recapture the grizzly bear on the loose at Sunbird acres, are misguided. Sure, the bear did maul a number of residents. But consider this: bears have long been appreciated by zoologists and the general public as beautiful creatures. The beauty of the grizzly bear has been documented extensively as in literalbearsI’mjealousof.tumblr.com.

Answer 18

Irrelevant

Question 19

Over 50% of UK residents believe in the supernatural. Therefore, at least in the UK, ghosts and seances must be real.👻

Answer 19

Appeal Fallacies - Invalid Appeal to Public Opinion

Question 20

Many people do not understand themselves, nor do they try to gain self understanding. These people might try to understand others, but these attempts are sure to fail, because without self understanding, it’s impossible to understand others. It’s clear from this, that anyone who lacks self understanding will be incapable of understanding others.

Answer 20

Circular reasoning

Question 21

Ace manufacturing company: our management consultant proposes that we reassign staff so that all employees are doing both what they like to do and what they do well. this she says will “increase productivity by fully exploiting our available resources “ but Ace manufacturing has a long-standing commitment not to exploit its workers, therefore, implementing her recommendations would cause us to violate our own policy.

Answer 21

Equivocation - homonym: “exploit”

Question 22

Isaac Newton destroyed the last known portrait of Robert Hook, one of his intellectual rivals, so history would never know what Hook looked like. He lied to Edmund Haley about having to “rework some figures“ so he could publish their shared work without having to credit Haley. Isaac Newton was a complete jerk, so therefore his theory on gravity is completely wrong.

Answer 22

Ad Hominem

Question 23

Carissa: we need to create a more reliable schedule for feeding the alligators in the preserve. It’s dangerous for us to enter the pen when the alligators are hungry.

Thomas: so what you’re really saying is that we should just let the alligators get their own food whenever they want! That’s even more dangerous than leaving them hungry. I should give the alligators your job.

Answer 23

Strawman

Question 24

Because Raul is a vegetarian, he will not have the pepperoni pizza for lunch. It follows that he will have the cheese pizza.

Answer 24

False dichotomy

Question 25

Josephina believes there is an omnipotent robot overlord in charge of our daily lives. Robot overlords always wear neckties. Therefore, Josephina believes that a necktie wearer is in charge of our daily lives.

Answer 25

Implication

Question 26

It is not been proven that the lack of snacks caused the model UN tournament to be poorly attended. It could’ve been poorly attended because of the growing disillusionment with multinational bureaucratic institutions. Therefore the lack of snacks must not have been the reason.

Answer 26

Possibility does not equal certainty

Question 27

In a recent study, each member of two groups of people group, Group A: composed of persons 65 to 75 years old and Group B: composed of college aged students. Participants were required to make a telephone call to a certain number at a specified time. The time on each call was initiated was recorded electronically. Group A proved far better at remembering to make a telephone call precisely at a specified time than did group B. There were 14 lapses in group B, but only one lapse in group A. Clearly, at least one type of memory does not suffer as a person ages.

Answer 27

False starts

Question 28

Eric is conducting a survey to find America’s favorite movie, but only asks guys on his football team. so the survey only includes respondents from that one particular group. Eric’s claims about America’s favorite movie are therefore problematic because America contains many types of people who are not football players on Eric football team.

Answer 28

Survey Problems

Question 29

Politician: those economists who claim the consumer price increases, have average less than 3% over the last year are mistaken. They clearly have not shopped anywhere recently. Gasoline is up 10% over the last year, my auto insurance 12%, newspapers 15%, propane 13%, bread 50%.

Answer 29

Overgeneralization

Question 30

A member of the mock trial team, Julia, is really afraid of heights. Therefore, it’s likely that most of the members of the mock trial team are also afraid of heights.

Answer 30

Whole-to-part & part-to-whole

Question 31

Natalie Portman‘s lack of chemistry with Hayden Christensen and her outlandish costumes made the Star Wars prequels borderline unwatchable. Therefore, Natalie Portman caused the temporary downfall of the Star Wars franchise.

Answer 31

Bad Causal Reasoning

Question 32

Plugging in peripheral components, such as a mouse from a personal computer, renders all of the software programs that require that component unusable on that computer on Fred’s personal computer. A software program that requires a mouse has become unusable so it must be with the mouse for Fred’s computer became unplugged.

Answer 32

Bad Conditional Reasoning

Question 33

Occurs when the author reads the conditional supplied in the premises incorrectly

Answer 33

Bad conditional reasoning

Question 34

Occurs when the author concludes that two things that are correlated actually have a causal relationship. for example, A thunderstorm coming before a headache might lead someone to believe that the thunderstorm caused the headache. But without any other information, it’s impossible to show that one caused to the other.

Answer 34

Bad causal reasoning

Question 35

when the author concludes that a member of a category has all of the properties of the category, or when the author concludes that the category itself has all of the properties of one individual with it. For example a Starbucks location ran out of cups so therefore the entire Starbucks corporation must also be out of cups.

Answer 35

Whole-to-part/part-to-whole

Question 36

This happens when you take a premise about one specific thing and then conclude about many many things in the category in general. For example, we got better results at 70° rather than at 60°, so the hotter our lab is the better our results are going to be.

Answer 36

Overgeneralization

Question 37

This happens when there is an LSAT stimulus question that has a survey in it, and the survey has issues with how it was conducted.

Answer 37

Survey Problems

Question 38

This happens when there are two groups in a study, and the researcher assumes the two groups are exactly the same, except for the two categories that they’re studying, and then the researcher concluded that the differences in the study are only due to the two categories that they were studying. For example, imagine you’re comparing two groups one that does jumping jacks every day and one that doesn’t there results say that the exercise group is healthier and the researcher concludes. It’s because of the exercise but it’s because of differences and diet or differences in age?

Answer 38

False-Starts

Question 39

This happens when either the author says the conclusion is wrong because someone can’t prove it’s true or if there’s not enough evidence that it’s true, so it must be wrong. For example, there’s some evidence that says if you become a musician, then you’ll become a narcissist because there’s some musicians that are narcissist, so playing music must turn you into a narcissist.

Answer 39

Possibility Does not equal certainty

Question 40

This happens when someone has a belief, and then there is a fact associated with that belief, and then the author of the question will assume that because the person has that belief, they also know about that fact. For example, I believe that my dog is really cute. anyone who goes to Argentina has with their dog has to pay a five dollar cute dog fine in order to say they have a cute dog. so therefore I’m aware that if I take my dog to Argentina I have to pay a five dollar cute dog fine.

Answer 40

Implication

Question 41

This one is when the author pretends that there’s only two options when really there could be more options so for example, you could say we can either go to the store today or we can stay home, but there’s another option that we could just go to the park or go tothe mall or go to the museum.

Answer 41

False dichotomy

Question 42

This one is when someone who is arguing will respond to an argument, by sort of mishearing, or twisting the words of what was said to them, and so they respond not to the argument, but to something that sounds kind of like the argument, but it’s actually different, but they pretend that they address the argument.

Answer 42

Straw Man

Question 43

This is when the arguer insults or attack, the proponent of a position rather than the position itself so you attack the person rather than the argument.

Answer 43

Ad Hominem

Question 44

This is when the author concludes that something is true, and then the premises, and the conclusion are almost the same or you assume that the conclusion is already true. Sometimes they do this by using homophones, or like synonyms of different words to make it sound like they’re talking about different things but really they’re just saying the same thing so it’s true because I say it’s true and everything that I say is true is true

Answer 44

Circular Reasoning

Question 45

This one is really silly and it’s when they use homonyms to change the meaning of a word throughout an argument, so, for example, I could say like I went to a party because I heard there was there were a couple great punches, but my mom was really upset with me because she didn’t want me to be engaged in violence. The homonym here is punches I was thinking of punches isn’t like a drink that you serve at a party, but my mom thought I meant like punching someone in the face as like a violent act, and so using those in that way way to sort of confuse the reader

Answer 45

Equivocation

Question 46

So this is when opinions are used instead of fax to justify something and so there’s two types of this one of them is the appeal to authority, and the other one is appeal to public opinion, and both of them are when you use an opinion that is not justified to support a conclusion

Answer 46

Appeal fallacies Appeal to authority Appeal to public opinion

Question 47

This is when the premises are not related to the conclusion at all, so someone makes an argument and their premises, and their conclusion are like do not support each other at all, but then they pretend that they do

Answer 47

Irrelevant

Question 48

This is when the author messes around with population data incorrectly.

Answer 48

Percentages do not equal numbers