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Complete Question Explanation

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

The argument opens with the classic “some people claim” construction. The legislators claim that the public finds many movies to be offensive, but the author rejects that position and concludes the legislators have misrepresented public opinion. The author uses the results of a survey as evidence. At first glance this argument looks very strong to most people, but then they encounter the question stem and realize there must be an error. This is a critical moment: when the question stem indicates an error is present but you did not realize one exists, you must go back to the stimulus and look for the error. Do not proceed to the answer choices thinking that the answers will clarify or reveal the error to you! The answer choices are designed to subtly draw your attention toward side issues, and it is far preferable that you find the error first and then find the answer that correctly describes the error.

In this argument, the error occurs with the people that were surveyed in the poll. The last sentence reveals that the survey did not use an unbiased sample: “the respondents see far more current movies than does the average movie goer.” As you might imagine, individuals who attend a large number of movies are by definition interested in the movies that are being shown, and are more likely to be aware of the level of violence and accepting of it. These tendencies make the sample unrepresentative of the general population—an error correctly described in answer choice (D). To help spot this error, note that the last sentence of the argument indicates that the surveyed individuals saw more movies than the average moviegoer. In other words, the survey respondents were not average.

Answer choice (A): This answer describes a Source argument. The author uses survey data to attack the legislator’s position and does not attack the credibility of the legislators.

Answer choice (B): The conclusion is based on the results of a survey about public opinion, not on subjective judgments of moral offensiveness.

Answer choice (C): The argument is not about what causes antisocial behavior, so it is not a flaw that the argument fails to consider that violent movies increase the prevalence of antisocial behavior.

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

Answer choice (E): The argument gives no data to suspect that the responses were not based on a random sampling of movies seen. The error is instead that the people surveyed represented a biased sample.

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