Critical Reasoning

Red is a color which has powerful effects on human beings as well as animals. A group of psychologists carried out an experiment which confirms the subconscious effects of this color on human behavior. They provided selected sports teams at school and college level with either red or blue shorts and recorded the outcome of the games. The teams wearing red won in a disproportionate number of matches. The psychologists suggested that either the teams wearing red subconsciously felt themselves more powerful, or that the non-red teams were subconsciously intimidated by the red color.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the psychologists' suggestion?

(A) Each team wore red in some matches and blue in others.

(B) The color blue has the subconscious effect of making human beings less competitive.

(C) The effect was only observed if all the team members wore white shirts.

(D) Red signifies danger in some cultures whereas it signifies happiness in others.

(E) In a subsequent study, teams with all-red outfits were more likely to report that they thought they would win no matter what color the opponents wore.

Suggestion is either the teams wearing red subconsciously felt themselves more powerful, or that the non-red teams were subconsciously intimidated by the red color.

i.e. Reason 1 -> win or Reason 2 -> win

To weaken the argument we need to find an alternate reason thats causing red team to win.

A. Irrelevant.
B. If blue makes people less competitive then its not reason 1 and reason 2 that's causing red team to win.
C. White - Irrelevant.
D. Extra but not useful info.
E. No matter what color - Irrelevant.

Correct Answer is B

melguy wrote:Suggestion is either the teams wearing red subconsciously felt themselves more powerful, or that the non-red teams were subconsciously intimidated by the red color.

i.e. Reason 1 -> win or Reason 2 -> win

To weaken the argument we need to find an alternate reason thats causing red team to win.

A. Irrelevant.
B. If blue makes people less competitive then its not reason 1 and reason 2 that's causing red team to win.
C. White - Irrelevant.
D. Extra but not useful info.
E. No matter what color - Irrelevant.

Correct Answer is B

Hi Melguy,

I don't think so that C is irrelevant.
What if the white color instead of red color was the reason for the performance of teams wearing red.
As the effect was only noticed when the team was wearing white with red.

And in weakening questions, the answer choices are allowed to bring in information outside the stem.

(D) Red signifies danger in some cultures whereas it signifies happiness in others.

What if to team A (culture A) red signifies danger and since team B (culture B) was wearing red, any of the team member A never even came close any of the team B player let alone defend the goal post. Hence team B won.

There are millions of assumptions we can make from the outside information but on the GMAT we have to find an answer that would most weaken the psychologists' suggestion.

Bit should be. It indicates that wearing blue makes the team less competitive and this would mean that there was a difference in score because of blue and not because of Red. Hence then answer should be B