#19 - Viewers surveyed immediately after the televised

[JocelynL]

Hello,
I didn't catch this conclusion as causal. Is it more common than not whenever we see an explanation to the reason for the conclusion its typically causal? When I first read the conclusion, I took it as the author was just explaining his position, and didn't realize it was a "causal explanation". Are there are any tips for how to correctly identify casual reasoning when there are no obvious indicators present? I just want to avoid missing this causal conclusion in future questions.

Thanks,

(Oct 2013 - Q19)

[Adam Tyson]

In addition to the causal indicators we list in our books and course materials, such as "responsible for" and "leads to," you can add these concepts that also indicate something causal at work:

bias
motive
incentive

Each of these indicates that someone's thoughts, desires, or beliefs can cause them to behave or think in certain ways. If I claim that Bill tried to sell me something other than what I asked for because he had been given an incentive by the manufacturer to sell that other thing, I am saying that the incentive caused him to try making that sale.

[HarmonRabb]

I'm confused why B doesn't weaken (along with D). The conclusion is the group of people polled after the debate were biased when they said Lopez did better, evidenced by the fact he won the election.

At first I ruled out B because it's not clear that it is talking about the same group of people and if their opinion isn't salient.

Is D correct because it's talking about a majority of all viewers whereas B is limited to viewers in the live audience?

[Adam Tyson]

"Viewers" refers to the television audience, HarmonRabb, and that's who the conclusion is about. Most of the viewers thought Lopez did better, and the author thinks that might be because they were already biased in favor of Lopez before the debate began. Answer B is about the people in the live audience, not the viewers, and so it doesn't really matter what they thought or felt. We need to show that the people who watched on TV were not necessarily biased in favor of Lopez, and answer D directly addresses that by saying they were actually leaning towards Tanner.