Critical Reasoning

Dear Friends,

I was having problems in answering the following question.

In 1960's studies of rats, scientists found that crowding increases the number of attacks among the animals significantly. But in recent experiments in which rhesus monkeys were placed in crowded conditions, although there was an increase in instances of "coping" behavior-such as submissive gestures and avoidance of dominant individuals-attacks did not become any more frequent.
Therefore it is not likely that, for any species of monkey, crowding increases aggression as significantly as was seen in rats. Which of the following, if true, most strengthens the argument?

A. All the observed forms of coping behavior can be found among rhesus monkeys living in uncrowded conditions.
B. In the studies of rats, nondominant individuals were found to increasingly avoid dominant individuals when the animals were in crowded conditions.
C. Rhesus monkeys respond with aggression to a wider range of stimuli than any other monkeys do.
D. Some individual monkeys in the experiment were involved in significantly more attacks than the other monkeys were.
E. Some of the coping behavior displayed by rhesus monkeys is similar to behavior rhesus monkeys use to bring to an end an attack that has begun.


Please help.

OA after some discussions.

Regards
Deano.

The conclusion generalizes the findings in Rheus Monkeys across ALL monkey species. So, if we can prove that some monkeys behave differently than Rheus Monkeys, we start talking. I suppose option C provides the best evidence that not ALL monkeys behave the same way as Rheus monkeys.

-Pallav

Please explain.

Thanks.

Explanation for (C)

The argument tells about attack in crowded condition among rats

1. Rhesus Monkey is most aggressive compared to all other monkeys. So it's expected to attack more than any other monkey in crowded condition
2. But the attack did not increase

Thus the argument is supported

My pick is "C" as well. All others weaken the argument considerably. Agree with ArunangsuSahu !

(C) is correct in my opinion as it says that RHEUS monkeys are most aggressive

to me E appears more logical!

E. Some of the coping behavior displayed by rhesus monkeys is similar to behavior rhesus monkeys use to bring to an end an attack that has begun.

means the pacifying behavior is displayed, thus strengthens the argument!

what say?

I also agree with C. The conclusion the statement makes refers to any species of monkeys. C strengthens the statement by showing that rhesus monkeys display more aggression than other monkeys making it likely that other species of monkeys will show even less agression.