Logical reasoning PrepTest 114 · Section 2 · Question 6

Incorrect. This answer is too broad based on the single topic in the stimulus. The stability of views on banning cigarette advertising might not be representative of other opinions.47774,Incorrect. There's no discussion of why the 24% of people against the ban are against it—it might have nothing to do with precedent and everything to do with some other concern they have.

Incorrect. First, 93% have some opinion on it, showing at least some level of concern, which would contradict this answer. That said, it doesn't establish that the concern they have is serious, so this answer doesn't have to be false, but the evidence certainly points more in that direction.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Facts

Question Type:
Must Be True

Stimulus Summary:
A large, representative sample of Danes were asked about their thoughts on cigarette advertising 10 years apart, and little changed:
(1) 31% favor a ban on it
(2) 24% don't favor a ban on it
(3) 38% favor a ban on it in certain places
(4) 7% have no opinion

Answer Anticipation:
Whenever the LSAT throws survey results like this your way, with percentages representing different groups, it's important to figure out if these groups can overlap with each other, or if they're distinct.

Here, they're distinct, and we can tell in two ways. First, the groups are mutually exclusive—you can't both favor a ban on cigarette ads and not favor it, or have an opinion that it should be banned in certain media but also have no opinion on it. Second, the percentages add up to 100%—showing that the responses represent everyone in the survey being in a different group.

Since these groups don't overlap, we can add them together. (If people could be in more than one group, we couldn't add them together, as some people might then be counted twice. That's common in flaw—based questions that present the results of a survey in percentages.) And there's really only two groups that share a feature that could be lumped together—the two groups that favor some type of ban.

We can therefore anticipate an answer stating something along the lines of 69% of people favor some type of ban on cigarette advertising.

Answer Explanation:
31% favor a ban, and 38% favor a ban in certain media, so 69% favor some sort of ban on cigarette advertising—which is over 50% and so counts as "[m]ost." This answer is supported by the survey results so it's the correct answer. And if you were thinking that the groups may overlap here they can't—the groups are all mutually exclusive and the results add up to 100% suggesting that people were allowed to select one and only one answer.

Key Takeaway:
When a survey presents results as percentages check to see if the groups can or can't overlap. If they can't then you can add up the percentages between groups that share elements in common to derive an inference. If they can then there's a good chance you're in a flaw—based question and the author is going to treat the groups as mutually exclusive!

Incorrect. Smokers can support a ban on cigarette advertising; non—smokers can oppose it. The survey results don't tell us anything about whether these groups smoke, so this answer is out of scope.