Several movie critics have claimed that this movie will inspire people to act in socially irresponsible ways, yet thi...

shunhe on August 26, 2020

Hi @anchelle,

Thanks for the question! So we’re being told here that several movie critics are saying that some movie will inspire people to act in socially irresponsible ways. But the argument tells us that this claim relies on bad data. So, the argument concludes, the critics made a claim that’s untrue and harmful.

What’s the flaw here? Well, it’s good to think of potential flaws before looking at the answer choices. Here’s a good one: the argument basically tells us the critics can’t prove what they said. And then it concludes from that that they’re wrong! Is that a valid form of argumentation? No, it’s not. That’s like me saying, well, you can’t prove Japan exists, so it must not be true that it does. Not being able to prove something and that thing being wrong are two different things, and that’s what (A) gets at, which makes it the right answer.

(B), on the other hand, tells us that the argument fails to consider a pejorative claim that’s true can be more harmful to a person’s reputation than a false claim. Well, we’re not ever comparing the relative harmfulness of false claims vs. pejorative true claims, so that can’t be the flaw. And (E) tells us that the argument doesn’t consider that even if the argument’s conclusion is false, some of the evidence might be true. But that’s not what happens. That’d be like if the argument said that the movie didn’t make people act in socially irresponsible ways, and then concluded that all of the data was wrong. But the argument doesn’t do that, so this can’t be the flaw either.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.