October 2008 LSAT Section 3 Question 16

When a threat to life is common, as are automobile and industrial accidents, only unusual instances tend to be promin...

Lily on August 11, 2013

Risk for un/common threats

I got the stimulus and the right answer ... Just wondering if I "translated" C correctly ... ? Common -> rare instance gets prominently reported Rare/ uncommon -> gets universally reported in feature stories So since news media watchers associate risk level to how frequently they see it on the news, then they overestimating the risk of uncommon threats relative to common because .... Here is where I am stuck :/

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Naz on August 13, 2013

We know that if something that is a common threat to life is being prominently reported by the news, then it is an unusual instance. Likewise, rare threats are always prominently reported by the news. Then we are given the principle, "People tend to estimate the risk of various threats by how frequently those threats come to their attention."

(A) is incorrect because we do not know anything about whether or not governmental action will be taken to lessen any risk.

(B) is incorrect because we do not know anything about threats being "dreadful" or people having "control over" the threat.

(C) is CORRECT because we know people in gen tend to estimate the risk of various threats by how frequently those threats come to their attention and we further know that the news media reports rare threats more frequently than common threats. Therefore, people who watch the news will "overestimate the risk of uncommon threats relative to the risk of common threats."

(D) is incorrect because we do not know what reporters tend to seek out.

(E) is incorrect because we do not know anything about the resources expended

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions!