September 2016 LSAT Section 1 Question 2

A lack of trust in one's neighbors leads to their lack of respect for the law. A new study provides compelling eviden...

rlquerubin on May 2, 2020

Unnecessary information?

So, in this stimulus, the first sentence about “trust in the law” is unnecessary designed to throw us off? I think I got this wrong because I was trying to incorporate that into my response. I notice, as I look at the stimulus without that sentence that the correct answer is more apparent.

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BenMingov on May 8, 2020

Hi Riquerubin, thanks for reaching out!

I wouldn't say that the first sentence is supposed to throw us off. More than anything, the first sentence is the conclusion that this study tries to support. The conclusion is that not trusting neighbours leads to not respecting the law. Then they show a study that shows lack of trusting neighbours coincides with lack of respect for the law. However, they fail to take into account that it could be the lack of respect for the law that leads people to lack trust in their neighbours.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions or if you'd like me to elaborate further!