Logical reasoning PrepTest 122 · Section 1 · Question 7

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Facts

Question Type:
Cannot Be True

Stimulus Summary:
(1) Immoral action AND Performed in public → Offend public sensibilities
(2) Immoral action → Accompanied by feelings of guilt

Answer Anticipation:
First, a note on the conditionals as diagrammed. The first statement establishes immoral action" as a super—sufficient condition. What we mean by that is that it applies to all of the conditional statements—any relationship established in later sentences is predicated on the action in question as being immoral. Thus, we can carry "immoral action" into each sufficient condition, as we did. In fact, it was the only sufficient condition in one of the two conditionals.

Second, this is a Cannot Be True question, not a Must Be True one. When we're looking for a Cannot Be True answer based on conditional statements, we're looking for something very specific. The correct answer should establish the presence of the sufficient condition of one of the two statements, but then establish that the necessary condition isn't present. Since the sufficient condition guarantees the necessary, it cannot be true that you have the former without the latter.

Finally, let's be careful with answers that conflate the two statements. There's significant overlap between the sufficient conditions in that both talk about immoral actions, so it'd be easy for the LSAT to throw terms together from both of them to create a trap answer.

Answer Explanation:
Since this answer deals with immoral actions that aren't performed in public, conditional #1 doesn't apply. However, since these actions are still immoral, #2 does apply. That statement tells us that all immoral actions, no matter where they're performed, result in feelings of guilt. Since this answer says that this doesn't always happen, it directly contradicts the conditional from the stimulus and thus can't be true. This answer is therefore correct.

Key Takeaway:
Cannot Be True questions that feature conditional logic—based statements in the stimulus are looking for a very specific correct answer—one that establishes the sufficient condition is present without the necessary condition.

Incorrect. The stimulus never discusses why immoral actions are immoral, or why they're wrong, for that matter, so this answer is out of scope. And out of scope answers very well could be true, so this answer is incorrect.

Incorrect. While we know that immoral actions performed in public are accompanied by such feelings, there could be other types of actions (not immoral ones) that offend public sensibilities when performed in public but don't result in feelings of guilt, so this answer is incorrect. (It's a variation on an illegal reversal/negation—while those are invalid, they're not necessarily false.)

Incorrect. This answer is a reversal of conditional #2, and reversals, while invalid, can be true.

Incorrect. The stimulus has immoral action" as a sufficient condition, not a necessary one, as in this answer. As such, this answer is an illegal reversal of the stimulus (that conflates the two statements) and, while invalid, it could be true.