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Cigarette company

Expert replies
by arora007 » Tue Jun 22, 2010 1:54 am
Two years ago, a court found a certain cigarette manufacturer legally liable for the death of several thousand people who somked the company's cigarettes and ordered the company to pay a large sum to the families of those victims. The next year, the company's profits increased to record levels. The lesson for other large corporations is clear: Produce products that are unsafe or unhealthy for consumers and your company will become more profitable.

Which of the following, if true, would provide the best reason for rejecting the conculsion drawn in the last sentence above?

a) Publicity resulting from court judgements against large businesses often affects their profitability.
b)Manufacturers of potentially unsafe or unhealthy products are required by law to provide appopriate warnings to consumers.
c) Manufacturers of dangerous products are often held liable for injuries to consumers resulting from the use of those products.
d) The risks involved in using any product are just one of many types of factors consumers consider when buying a product.
e) Compared to cigarettes, most consumer products pose insignificant risks to the health or safety of those who use them.

[spoiler]OA is D, get this wrong?? IF A follows B, does not mean A cuased B.... Thank me...[/spoiler]

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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by albatross86 » Tue Jun 22, 2010 2:00 am
The conclusion is that unsafe products lead to higher profitability. This is a cause - effect scenario, and we have to weaken it.

A. This may actually strengthen the conclusion, since the publicity ensuing from producing an unsafe product may actually lead to changes in the profitability. Also it is not clear whether it increases or decreases the profitability.

B. Warnings don't have anything to do with profitability.

C. That was made clear in the premise of the argument so it cannot be considered a weakener.

D. There are other factors. Bingo! This means we cannot draw a cause to effect relationship without considering these other factors that also influence buyer behavior and hence profitability.

E. This doesn't mean you couldn't follow the advice of going out of your way to produce an unsafe product, and hence does not affect the conclusion.

Pick D.
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by paddle_sweep » Thu Jun 24, 2010 8:39 pm
Hi, I don't understand as to how 'D' is the answer.
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by albatross86 » Thu Jun 24, 2010 8:45 pm
paddle_sweep wrote:Hi, I don't understand as to how 'D' is the answer.
In a cause-effect claim such as the one made in the argument, the claim is weakened if there are other factors that could have been causes. Here, the argument says that A happened, and so did B, so A caused B (A is the production of unsafe products and B is the company becoming profitable)

D suggests that consumers look at things other than risks when they decide whether or not to purchase a product. Thus, there are OTHER factors that influence buyer behaviour, which means something ELSE could have caused the company to be profitable.

This therefore is a good reason the question the conclusion that the fact that the company produced unsafe products led to it becoming profitable.
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by jube » Thu Jun 24, 2010 10:49 pm
+1 for D & agree with albatross' explanation! You have to find elements which will prevent the cause from occurring. (the cause in this case being profitability of companies producing unsafe & unhealthy products)
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