Can any research be found to validate the contention that those who spend time plucking out their gray hairs have mor...

Naz June 25, 2014

Main Point questions are a type of Must Be True question. Our strategy for these questions is first to identify the conclusion and premise(s) of the argument. Our correct answer will fulfill two requirements: (1) the statement must be true and (2) the statement must also be the conclusion of the argument.

The conclusion here is that there is no research to back up the contention that those who spend time plucking out their gray hairs have more negative attitudes toward the elderly than those who shrug their shoulders about their gray hairs.

Why? We are told that "it is reasonable to like the elderly yet dislike the idea of impaired eyesight and hearing." It is also mentioned that "holding negative attitudes toward older people merely because they are old is immoral, according to nearly universally accepted ethical standards." However, we are told that it is not immoral to dislike the things that come hand in hand with the aging process, e.g. gray hairs, impaired eyesight, etc.

So, let's look at answer choice (A), "It cannot be assumed that people who dislike some of the physical concomitants of growing old necessarily have negative feelings towards the elderly." First, we must determine whether this statement must be true. This statement is 100% supported by the passage so it satisfies the first prong. We are given many examples of why just because someone dislikes physical phenomenon that naturally accompany aging does not necessarily mean that they dislike the elderly (e.g. "it is reasonable to like the elderly yet dislike the idea of impaired eyesight and hearing").

Second, the answer choice should restate the conclusion, i.e. that there is no research to back up the contention that those who spend time plucking out their gray hairs have more negative attitudes toward the elderly than those who shrug their shoulders about their gray hairs. Answer choice (A) clearly restates the conclusion in the passage, i.e. that there is no evidence/research to show that those who dislike some of the physical aspects of aging, also dislike the elderly, thus, it cannot be assumed to be so.

Hope that was helpful! Let us know if you have any other questions.

Think Green February 22, 2015

Is that B wrong cuz it's not the Main Point but just a restatement of some premises?

Naz February 25, 2015

Yes exactly. Great job identifying that.

Let us know if you have any other questions!

Alex April 7, 2015

Why aren't C or E the main point?

Naz April 14, 2015

As explained in the above thread, the conclusion in this argument is that there is no research to back up the contention that those who spend time plucking out their gray hairs have more negative attitudes toward the elderly than those who shrug their shoulders about their gray hairs.

Why? We are told that "it is reasonable to like the elderly yet dislike the idea of impaired eyesight and hearing." It is also mentioned that "holding negative attitudes toward older people merely because they are old is immoral, according to nearly universally accepted ethical standards." However, we are told that it is not immoral to dislike the things that come hand in hand with the aging process, e.g. gray hairs, impaired eyesight, etc.

Answer choice (C) is not the main point because the argument never states that "no one likes the physical concomitants of growing old." Thus, since it never mentioned this, it cannot be the point of the argument.

Answer choice (E) is a premise of the main point, as opposed to the conclusion. Remember that a main point will never support any other sentence, but answer choice (E) supports the fact that we cannot assume that just because some people dislike some of the physical concomitants of growing old, we cannot infer from this that they dislike the elderly. Therefore, answer choice (E), cannot be a conclusion since it supports another statement.

You can also refer back up to the previous thread for further explanation into why (A) is correct.

Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

rolltribe July 14, 2015

I'm sorry, I'm just having a hard time understanding exactly why the conclusion is what you're claiming it is. Could you maybe try stating it in a different way?

Thanks

Naz July 15, 2015

The first sentence asks us whether any research can be found that validates the belief that people who spend time plucking out gray hairs have more negative attitudes towards the elderly than those who don't care about their gray hairs.

The second sentence says there is no actual backing to the belief stated in the first sentence.

The third sentence is, in essence, telling us why there is no backing: it's reasonable to like the elderly, yet dislike the idea of getting old, i.e. those who pluck out their gray hairs do not have negative feelings about the elderly, merely they have negative feelings about their own diminishing youth.

The fourth and fifth sentence also are telling us why there is no backing: it is universally accepted that one who hold negative attitudes towards older people merely because they are old is immoral, whereas there is nothing immoral about disliking some characteristics of the aging process.

Thus, as you can see, every sentence leads us to the second sentence: there is no necessary connection to the contention that those who spend time plucking out their gray hairs have more negative attitudes toward the elderly than those who shrug their shoulders about their gray hairs, i.e. answer choice (A) "It cannot be assumed that people who dislike some of the physical concomitants of growing old necessarily have negative feelings towards the elderly."

Our conclusion is the sentence that every other sentence leads to. As stated in the above thread, a main point must be 100% correct and it must be the conclusion. As you can see, answer choice (A) does both those things.

Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

AnkitM February 3, 2016

When working on this question, I selected the statement: "no necessary connection" as try subsidiary conclusion, and then the main conclusion as: "b/c nothing immoral about disliking some concomitants of the aging process." I arrived at the correct answer, but was wondering if it would be wrong to do so in the future. Would that be considered a subsidiary conclusion? Or just the main conclusion? And is, "b/c nothing immoral about disliking some concomitants if the aging process" just a premise then?
It's hard finding the conclusion with no structural indicators present.
Thank you!

DaKota-King February 2, 2019

Please break this question down for me. I'm having issues determining a conclusion.

Ravi February 10, 2019

@AnkitM and @DaKota-King,

Happy to help!

@AnkitM,

Great question. What you tagged as the subsidiary conclusion, "There
is no necessary connection," is actually the main conclusion of the
argument. What you tagged as the main conclusion, "But there is
nothing immoral about disliking some concomitants of the aging
process," is actually one of the argument's premises. We know for sure
that it's a premise because of the keyword "but" that is used to
introduce the phrase.

A good test to help you better identify what the conclusion is if
you're unsure between two different sentences of the stimulus is to
put 'because' between both phrases and see which way makes sense.

Way 1: "There is no necessary connection" BECAUSE "there is nothing
immoral about disliking some concomitants of the aging process." Note
that I omitted but since we put BECAUSE right before the second
phrase.

This sounds like it makes sense. Let's look at the other way

Way 2: "But there is nothing immoral about disliking some concomitants
of the aging process" BECAUSE "There is no necessary connection"

This second way makes no sense, which shows us that "There is no
necessary connection" is the conclusion.

You're right, the conclusion is hard to find in this argument, but
ultimately, the conclusion is the part of the stimulus that the rest
of the argument is working to support.

@DaKota-King,

The argument starts off with a question: is there any research that
shows that people who pluck out their gray hairs hate old people more
than those who shrug their shoulders at their gray hairs? The author
then states that there's no necessary connection between negative
attitudes toward the elderly and how people choose to react to any
gray hairs they might have. The author then says that it's totally
fine and reasonable to have positive feelings toward the elderly but
to despise getting worse vision and hearing. Additionally, the author
says that harboring ill feelings toward the elderly is immoral,
whereas there's nothing immoral about disliking certain aspects of the
aging process.

In breaking this stimulus down, the first sentence introduces
context/background information for the argument. There is some thought
that people who dislike aging also dislike old people. Then, the
author says, "There is no necessary connection," and the rest of the
stimulus contains premises to support this assertion. The first
premise to support that there is no necessary connection is that it is
reasonable to like the elderly but also despise various facets of
aging. Then the author says that hating older people just because
they're old is immoral, and the other finally ends with the premise
that there's nothing immoral about hating the various facets of aging.

In our analysis, we see that "There is no necessary connection" is the
main conclusion of the argument because it's what the whole stimulus
is designed to support. The first sentence provides us with background
information, the second sentence is the conclusion, and the rest of
the sentences after the second sentence are premises that are used to
support the overall conclusion.

Does this help? Let us know if you have any more questions!