#13 - Harrold Foods is attempting to dominate the soft drink

[Kristina Moen]

Hi jgray,

You got it. A survey is evidence. Always be wary when you see surveys. Also be wary when you see the word "opinion." Here, we didn't even have to get into what "dominant in the market" meant or even pay attention to the numbers 75% versus 50%. The premise relied on the "opinion" of people, and then assumed that the opinion was in fact true. So if you ever see that flaw, look for an answer choice like "taking evidence that a claim is believed to be true to constitute evidence that the claim is in fact true."

For the future/past question: Pay close attention to the conclusion - "Harrold Foods dominates the market now and need only maintain its current market share in order to continue to do so." It is not about advertising or whether Harrold Foods WILL dominate the market in the future. But only that it is dominant now and need only maintain its current market share (this author seems to believe it's 72%) to continue dominating (being above 50%). Seems like an obvious statement, but only if you believe the survey represents actual market share.

[romankd]

Which error in reasoning from the LR bible would this be?

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Roman,

This is an appeal to popular opinion. The author concludes that something is true based on the evidence that a percentage of people believe it to be true. The author does not establish that the general population is able to evaluate market share appropriately.

There's also a numerical/percentages concept here. The author states that any product with more than 50% of the market share dominates the market. But we don't actually know what the market share is of Hero. The other percentage used, 72%, is used to give the percentage of people who believe a claim, not the percentage of market share that the product has. It's purposely over that 50% threshold number though in order to trick you into thinking the percentages are talking about the same concept.

Hope that helps!