#17 - When expert witnesses give testimony, jurors often do

[Administrator]

Please post below with any questions!

[brcibake]

What is the reasoning behind this answer. I thought it was B and I am not sure were I went wrong.

[nicholaspavic]

Hi brci,

The correct answer is Answer (B):

"Jury decisions in cases involving expert witness testimonies are not always determined by the reliability of those testimonies."

This answer choice for this Must Be True question passes the Fact Test and it therefore the right answer. I hope this was good news!

[emilyjmyer]

Hi!

Why is the answer B and not C?

I realized that the words "not always" made for an attractive MBT answer choice but I still went with C.

I chose C because in the stimulus it describes

experts give testimony --> jurors don't understand technical info --> can't evaluate info

I thought C was a contrapositive: Jurors can evaluate info--> jurors do understand technical info

Where did I go wrong here?

Thanks!

[Robert Carroll]

emilyjmyer,

Answer choice (C) doesn't talk about understanding the information. It talks about assessing the legal implications, which is not discussed in the stimulus.

Additionally, it looks like what you diagramming shows answer choice (C) to be closer to a Mistaken Negation than anything else. Your diagram of the stimulus has "not understanding" and "not evaluate" as separate conditions. So in answer choice (C), the sufficient condition would be "understand" anyway. Your diagram of answer choice (C) doesn't match the conditionality of it anyway. Hope this helps!

Robert Carroll

[willwants170]

Would B be correct because it was most supported, not fully supported? When reading B and relating it to the stimulus, wouldn't it be possible that jury decisions are always informed by reliability of testimonies even if the jurors are unable to assess the reliability. I ended up not picking B because I thought, "What if when jurors are unable to assess the reliability, outside council is brought in to help them assess reliability and their decisions are always based on that." Would this train of thought be correct, and that this answer is correct, not because it has to follow from the conclusion, but because all the other ACs are not supported at all.

[Dana D]

Hey Will,

You are correct in saying answer choice (B) is the correct answer because it is the only one supported by the stimulus. However, be careful in thinking about all the possibilities of what could be and applying them to the question. Maybe outside council is brought in to help jurors understand, but we don't actually know that and there is no evidence in the stimulus to support that. Instead, what we know is that jurors cannot assess the reliability of expert testimony, so in cases involving expert witnesses, juries cannot always determine the case based on the reliability of that testimony. This is why answer (B) MBT.

Hope that helps!

[willwants170]

Hey Will,

You are correct in saying answer choice (B) is the correct answer because it is the only one supported by the stimulus. However, be careful in thinking about all the possibilities of what could be and applying them to the question. Maybe outside council is brought in to help jurors understand, but we don't actually know that and there is no evidence in the stimulus to support that. Instead, what we know is that jurors cannot assess the reliability of expert testimony, so in cases involving expert witnesses, juries cannot always determine the case based on the reliability of that testimony. This is why answer (B) MBT.

Hope that helps!

Thank you. On most strongly supported questions, the correct answers can be fully supported, without a shadow of a doubt, like MBT. Just to confirm, answer choice B is not fully supported-- as in answer choice B does not have to follow from the argument, but highly likely, given the wording of "not always."

[Luke Haqq]

Hi willwants170!

You comment,

On most strongly supported questions, the correct answers can be fully supported, without a shadow of a doubt, like MBT.

Yes, but rather than considering must strongly supported questions to be "like" MBT questions, it's best to think of them just as MBT questions. And on MBT questions, the answer choice is fully supported by the stimulus, rather than only being highly likely based off of it.

Here, answer choice (B) is fully supported by the stimulus. It must be the case that "[j]ury decisions in cases involving expert witness testimonies are not always determined by the reliability of those testimonies," because we're told in the stimulus that juries frequently are unable to assess the reliability of expert testimonies. If they're frequently not able to assess the reliability of such testimony, then in at least some cases involving expert witness testimony, jury decisions are not determined by the witness's reliability.