The radio station claims that its new format is popular with listeners because more than three-quarters of the listen...

Victoria on November 22, 2019

Hi @cjahangiri

I always find these questions to be tough too as the answer choices are presented in such abstract language. To approach these, make sure that you have a full understanding of what the passage is arguing and how it goes about doing so before reading through the answer choices.

The passage tells us that the radio station's claim that its new format is popular is not conclusive. Why? Because the radio station backs up this claim by sharing that more than three-quarters of listeners who call in requests say that they like the new format.

The passage says that this is akin to claiming that a political candidate is popular based solely on the feedback provided by people who have already decided to vote for them.

In both cases, the flaw in reasoning is that the sample used to draw the conclusion is comprised solely of people who are already supportive of the endeavour. The radio station relied on people who listen to their station and the hypothetical political candidate used people who had already decided to vote for them.

In both analogous cases, a faulty inference is drawn. This is directly restated by answer choice B:

"Referring to an inference that is clearly flawed (political candidate) to undermine an analogous inference (radio station)"

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any further questions.