#25 - Columnist: Consent forms filled out by subjects prior to their participation

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Flaw in the Reasoning. The correct answer choice is (D).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[valentina07]

Can you explain why E is wrong?

[Luke Haqq]

Hi valentina07!

Answer choice (E) states that the argument "draws a conclusion that is essentially about a moral issue by appealing to evidence that is purely factual."

It's not clear what this answer choice means in referring to a conclusion "that is essentially about a moral issue." The conclusion is: "This casts doubt on the claim made by some medical ethicists that many test subjects resent being given placebos (as happens to roughly half of all test subjects) or resent being given medicines that turn out to be ineffective (as also often occurs)." On my reading, it's not immediately apparent what aspect of this conclusion is about a moral issue. Perhaps the thought is that consent forms are a moral issue, or people resenting particular treatment, or how experiments are conducted? Without being able to pin down what is being referred to by the word moral in answer choice (E), it's hard to find that answer choice as accurately describing a flaw in the stimulus.

The columnist moves from facts specifically about how people behave to conclusions about what they resent. Resentment can be used in a variety of contexts involving morality, but there's no indication that it's specifically some sort of moral notion of resentment at issue here. Rather, here it seems synonymous with "dislike."

[katnyc]

This last question threw me off. I did not like any of the answer choices and I just guessed on this one as it was the answer I did not hate the most. Would someone please explain in detail what made this correct compared to the others. B to me was def wrong. C I dont think the representation to sample was wrong.

Thanks in advanced

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Sure kat---let me go through answer choice by answer choice.

Answer choice (A): What would be the two phenomena here? The error isn't assuming a relationship between two unrelated events.

Answer choice (B): Is there any claim there about the scientific value of placebos? The only placebo-based claim is that some participants resent being given them. But that doesn't give us information about the scientific value of placebos.

Answer choice (C): There's no sample size given, and no indication that the people signing the consent forms would be different than the people participating in the studies.

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer. The conclusion casts doubt on the claim that patients resent receiving ineffective treatment. But the only support given is that the patients sign documents stating they are aware of the possibility of ineffective treatment. That isn't great support---it doesn't mean that they won't resent ineffective treatment if it happens, just that have knowledge that it COULD happen. Our answer choice correctly describes the flaw---the argument assumes because they are aware of a possibility before it occurs, they won't resent if it eventually occurs.

Answer choice (E): This answer choice is trying to get you to jump at the word moral just because the word ethicist is in the stimulus. Otherwise, this is not a great description of what we see in the stimulus at all.

Hope that helps!