GMAT Prep Question

[Md Raihan Uddin]

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.

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Hi MD Raihan Uddin,

This CR question is based on the concept of Representativeness - the idea that a small group can represent the larger whole.

The Facts:
-In studies from the 1960s, scientists found that CROWDING significantly increases the number of attacks among animals.
-In RECENT experiments, rhesus monkeys were placed in CROWDED conditions, but the number of attacks did NOT increase (there WAS an increase in "coping" behavior though).
-"Coping behavior" involves submissive gestures and avoidance of dominant individuals.

The Conclusion:
For ANY species of monkey, CROWDING is not likely to increase aggression in the same way that was seen in rats.

The Logic:
The author uses rhesus monkeys as representative of ALL monkeys. Since rhesus monkeys do NOT see an increase in the attacks when placed in CROWDED situations, the author concludes that ANY species of monkey will behave in the same way (and not in the way that rats behaved). Since this is a rather "loose" argument, to strengthen it, we need an answer that compares rhesus monkeys to other monkeys and provides some type of evidence that proves that rhesus monkeys behave in a way that is comparable to ALL monkeys.

Answer C gives us that comparison AND tells us how rhesus monkeys are MORE aggressive than other monkeys. This tells us that other monkeys are even less aggressive - since the rhesus monkeys didn't attack one another, other monkeys would be even less likely to attack one another when placed in a crowded situation.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich