Logical reasoning PrepTest 126 · Section 4 · Question 24

Incorrect. This answer does provide independent evidence that these individuals are polite—they are consistently polite in their daily lives. That's a statement about their actions being used to justify a judgment about their character, which isn't repetitive/circular.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Flawed Parallel Reasoning

Stimulus Summary:
How do you know the people who buy our cereal are health—conscious? They buy our healthy cereal. How do you know our cereal is healthy? It's purchased by health—conscious individuals. How do you know they're health—conscious? They buy our healthy cereal. How do you know the cereal is healthy? It's purchased by . . .

Answer Anticipation:
A circular argument!

Here, there are two conclusions"—that the cereal is healthy, and that the people who buy it are health conscious. What support is there that the cereal is healthy? That it's purchased by health—conscious people. What's the evidence that they're health—conscious? That they buy healthy cereal. Each conclusion is used to justify the other, without any actual evidence to back up either that the cereal is healthy or these individuals are health—conscious. Let's find an answer that has the same issue.

Answer Explanation:
How do we know the game is intellectually challenging? It's played by intelligent people. How do we know they're intelligent? They play this intellectually challenging card game. Each conclusion is used to justify the other, so this argument has the same circular reasoning structure as the stimulus.

Key Takeaway:
Circular arguments are rare on the LSAT—it's much more likely that you'll see an incorrect answer in an Errors in Reasoning question describing a circular reasoning flaw than that you'll actually see one. However, this is what one sounds like, so you may want to make a note and save it to come back to so you can remember how these sound!

Incorrect. This answer presents a reason to believe that the individuals in question have a good palate for coffee—they passed a taste test.

Incorrect. There's multiple pieces of evidence here—the people were seen, and the jacket was tried on by many people, only some of whom fit.

Incorrect. This answer has people making two incorrect determinations to support a claim that they have bad eyesight, thus it's not circular as the stimulus is.