Logical reasoning PrepTest 133 · Section 3 · Question 26

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Facts

Question Type:
Paradox

Stimulus Summary:
Ethics charges - ~50% believe the charges against Walker
Job performance - 52% think Walker's doing a good job
Change? - The job performance didn't change much after the ethics violations

Answer Anticipation:
That's a substantial number of people who believe the ethics charges against Walker! However, note that the numbers almost match each other—"almost half" of the city (say, 48% maybe) believe the ethics charges against Walker, whereas 52% think he's doing a great job. That means 48% disapprove of his job.

That's not the weird part—the weird part is that the 52%/48% split didn't change after the ethics violations broke. What could explain someone's approval rating staying the same despite 48% of people believing charges of ethics violations? Well, if everyone who believed those charges already disapproved of your job, then the charges wouldn't change anything. If the charges changed minds, then the approval rating should have slipped—apparently, they didn't change minds!

Answer Explanation:
This answer highlights that the charges didn't change anyone's mind. The people who disapproved of the Mayor believed these charges, and the people who approved of the Mayor didn't.

Key Takeaway:
Paradox questions frequently feature changes where we need to find another change to account for an unexpected outcome. Interestingly, this question featured something that didn't change, and so we looked for an answer that brought up something else that didn't change to account for the surprising stability.

Incorrect. If anything, this makes the paradox worse. If a politician's opponents are seeing their approval ratings go up, it would be expected to see the politician's approval rating go down.

Incorrect. Since the paradox surrounds no change in the Mayor's approval rating, anything short of the 52% who approve of him not knowing of the ethical violation charges won't resolve it.

Incorrect. This answer doesn't provide an explanation as to why Walker's approval rating has stayed the same—if anything, it'd suggest a reason that support might start going elsewhere.

Incorrect. An admission? That would surely cause at least some people to reconsider their approval of Mayor Walker's job performance. This answer is more in the direction of making the surprising fact more surprising than less.