Game show host: Humans are no better than apes at investing, that is, they do not attain a better return on their ...

Victoria on June 30, 2020

Hi @jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com

Happy to help!

This is a bizarro errors in reasoning question. The correct answer will be the one that either describes a flaw in reasoning not made by the passage or describes something done by the passage that is not a flaw.

Let's start by going through the passage and seeing if we can pick out all the flaws.

The game show host concludes that humans are no better than apes at investing i.e. they do not attain a better return on their investments than apes. This is already a very broad conclusion. What evidence is provided to back this up?

The game show host cites an experiment where they gave five stock analysts and one chimpanzee each $1,350 to invest.

After one month, the chimp increased its net worth by $210 whereas the best stock analyst only increased their net worth by $140.

What flaws do we see in this experiment and the conclusion drawn from it?

(1) The conclusion is drawn on the basis of one experiment involving only one chimp and only five humans.

(2) The conclusion is drawn on the basis of a one-month-long experiment.

Now let's go through the answer choices.

We can eliminate answer choices (A) and (C) as they are encompassed by the flaws outlined in (1) above.

We can also eliminate answer choices (D) and (E) as they are encompassed by the flaws outlined in (2) above.

Answer choice (B) says that no evidence is offered to suggest that chimps can understand stock reports and make reasoned investment decisions. This is the correct answer choice as this is something done by the passage that is not a flaw.

The host concludes that apes are better at investing because they attain a better return on their investments. This does not require that chimps can understand stock reports and make reasoned investment decisions.

In this way, answer choice (B) describes something that is done by the passage but is not a flaw as this evidence, or lack thereof, has no bearing on the conclusion. As this is a bizarro errors in reasoning question, answer choice (B) is therefore correct.

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