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one question for help

Expert replies
by lingerer » Fri Jan 21, 2011 5:51 pm
12. A researcher studying drug addicts found that, on
average, they tend to manipulate other people a
great deal more than nonaddicts do. The researcher
concluded that people who frequently manipulate
other people are likely to become addicts.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weak-
ens the researcher's conclusion?
(A) After becoming addicted to drugs, drug addicts
"learn to manipulate other people as a way of
"obtaining drugs.
(B) When they are imprisoned, drug addicts often
"use their ability to manipulate other people to
"obtain better living conditions.
(C) Some nonaddicts manipulate other people more
"than some addicts do.
(D) People who are likely to become addicts exhibit
"unusual behavior patterns other than
"frequent manipulation of other people
(E) The addicts that the researcher studied were
"often unsuccessful in obtaining what they wanted when they manipulated other people.

The answer is A, but my choice is D. The text tells us that manipulation leads people to become addicts, and the choice D informs us that other reasons lead people to become addicts, so I think the choice D stands out to weak the position in the text.
Please help me. Thank you!
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by fitzgerald23 » Fri Jan 21, 2011 7:06 pm
The argument that the author is making is:

because drug addicts manipulate others much more than non addicts then it stands to reason that manipulative people are going to become addicts.

The question wants you to weaken this conclusion. The easiest way to do that is to find a way to flip it around. His theory is that manipulative people are likely to become addicts. The reverse way to look at it is that being a drug user leads a person to be manipulative and that they were not manipulative before drugs.

A. Correct. This is exactly what we want in an answer. It tells us that the addicts learn after becoming addicted to manipulate. If they learn after they are addicts then we cant say that manipulative people become addicts. Instead we say that addicts become manipulative.

B. Incorrect. We are looking for correlation between drug addiction and manipulative skills. How they use their ability is unimportant.

C. Incorrect. The author already stated "on average" so he agrees some non-addicts are more manipulative.

D. Incorrect. Just because they have other behaviors does not mean that the manipulation trait does not make them become addicts. The authors argument is manipulators become addicts. Imagine if you have a group of 100 people. 80 people show some type of strange behavior and 20 are manipulators. Of that group 79 of the other behaviors become addicts and 19 manipulators become addicts. So the other behaviors are more likely, but at the same time the manipulators are also very likely to become addicts. That could possibly strengthen the position.

E. Incorrect. How good or bad they were is not the issue here.
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