#15 - A consumer magazine surveyed people who had sought

[daanishb]

Hi, the confusion between B and C that I had was the belief that if people are doing well in therapy, that is a demonstration of its effectiveness. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that one would stay in therapy because they feel that it is effective. Do you have any tips on not falling into the context of the stimulus and focusing more on the logic?

[Adam Tyson]

Just a general suggestion, daanishb, and that's to pay attention to the difference between subjective judgments and objective reality, because that's a commonly tested distinction on the LSAT. It's one thing to say that some people believe something, and an entirely different thing to say that the thing they believe is true. Showing that many people reported something or claimed something is not the same as that report or that claim being accurate.

And one other tip: don't make assumptions! You assumed that the patients' feelings were an indication of effectiveness, but that isn't necessarily so, and you shouldn't be making those sorts of assumptions. Maybe they felt that way because they were grouchy and hadn't been sleeping well? Maybe they felt that way because they didn't like facing their fears and insecurities, and in fact that was an indication that it WAS helping, and they just didn't like how that help felt? Maybe it was just that this group was harder to please?

Answer B really has nothing to do with any of these things, though. B is wrong because it doesn't matter how big or small each group is. Maybe very people were in the <6 months group and thousands were in the >6 months group, but the numbers aren't the issue. What matters is the difference in percentages. Why did the second group have a higher reported rate of satisfaction? The author thinks that it indicates actual results, when it could be that the two groups were fundamentally different in some other important respect.