The makers of Activite, a natural dietary supplement, claim that it promotes energy and mental alertness. To back up ...

AndrewArabie April 15, 2023

is the stimulus not intentionally misleading?

If a product is free then why is it charging a handling fee? I ruled out D because I assumed it was talking about the purchased product. I totally understand why D is right if the handling fee applies to the new customers that think they are getting a free product that isn't free. But if thats the case then the stimulus is intentionally misleading as is the marketing tactic of the Activite.

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Emil-Kunkin April 16, 2023

Hi, it is absolutely intentionally misleading for the company to make this claim (if D is true). This smacks of late night TV offering you vitamin/supplements/THE NEXT BIG THING for FREE! (Just pay shipping and handling). However, I don't think the passage itself is misleading exactly, but it is pretty uncommon. Normally we wouldn't see a right answer that effectively attacks a premise, but that's close to what we see here. While D doesn't completely contradict the fact that it's free, it shows that, while the product is technically free, the effect on the consumer is as if it were not free. Ultimately, this has the same effect on the argument as saying that the product were not actually free.

I think the critical thing to remember here is that for strengthen and weaken questions, we are asked about what, IF TRUE, would strengthen the argument. We are asked to imagine what each answer choice would mean for the argument if they were the case.

AndrewArabie April 17, 2023

Thank you Emil. I really just didn't think D would apply because it didn't specify that the handling fee also is applied to the free samples. Ill try to brainstorm ways to fix this problem for myself

Emil-Kunkin April 18, 2023

Hm, in that case, it would indeed be hard to see how D fits in. I'm a big fan of asking myself "so what" about each answer choice for weaken and strengthen questions.

In this case, the information seems so utterly unimportant unless the product in question includes the free samples, and there's no reason given to think they wouldn't be included.