PrepTest 154

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Errors in Reasoning

Stimulus Summary:
99% of downloaders of music don't publish music online, therefore it can't be true that a significant amount of music online is created by downloading music and reworking it.

Answer Anticipation:
Gigantic fallacy alert! This stimulus seems to think that if only 1% of downloaders create music, then only 1% of music can be created by downloaders. To see how silly this is, just change the variables a little bit. "99% of people who love to eat are not chefs, so it must not be true that a significant number of chefs love to eat." Ridiculous, right? The stimulus is making a wild equivocation between people who consume music and people who create music. Expect the correct answer choice to call out the equivocation.

Answer Explanation:
Yes, exactly. Just like most people who eat don't run restaurants, most people who download music don't also create and publish music. But even if only 1% of downloaders are also music publishers, those few people could be producing a lot of the music posted online.

Key Takeaway:
If you're having trouble finding the fallacy in an Errors in Reasoning question, try swapping out nouns (e.g. "people who download music") for something similar and more familiar to you (e.g. "people who eat food.") Sometimes the fallacy will jump out at you if you just think about how you might make the same argument, but on a different subject.

Incorrect. This doesn't describe a fallacy present in the argument. The argument is not about how difficult or easy it is to post music online, it's about how much of it is based on reworked downloads.

Incorrect. An argument against one explanation of a phenomenon is not obligated to provide an alternative explanation. Had this argument not been grossly flawed, it certainly could have successfully argued against downloaded music as a source for much of the music published online without proposing alternatives.

Incorrect. This definitely would be a fallacy if the argument had committed it, but the argument didn't make this claim. The argument's conclusion was restricted to music published online, so any facts about music created and not published would be irrelevant.

Incorrect. Internet users' preferences never entered into the argument in the stimulus at all. This is totally irrelevant to the matter at hand.