Critical Reasoning: Conclusion Weakening Questions
Saturn Chocolate spokesperson: Mindt Chocolate's new candy bar is most clearly designed to compete with our most popular candy bar, famous for its distinct black and orange package. Mindt uses a similar package, which makes it likely that many consumers intending to buy our candy bar will mistakenly buy Mindt's instead.
Mindt Chocolate spokesperson: The names of the two bars, which appear on the package, make them easily distinguishable. Saturn's bar is called Sniggers while ours is named Chuckles.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens the Mindt Chocolate spokesperson's response?
Incorrect.
[[snippet]]This answer choice neither weakens nor strengthens Mindt's position; it only shows there's a similarity shared by many candy bars, but we do not know whether or not Sniggers and Chuckles are among these candy bars.
Incorrect.
[[snippet]]This answer choice strengthens Mindt's position by highlighting a major difference between the two candy bars.
Incorrect.
[[snippet]]This answer choice is irrelevant, as it discusses the two companies' ages rather than the similarity (or lack thereof) of Sniggers and Chuckles.
Incorrect.
[[snippet]]This answer choice is irrelevant, as it discusses the amount of sales of two companies' most popular products rather than the similarity (or lack thereof) of Sniggers and Chuckles.
It could be argued that similar sales figures indicate people really confuse Chuckles with Sniggers, thereby weakening Mind's position, but this would require some serious assumptions. There is an answer choice which weakens Mindt's position more clearly. Look for it!
Good!
[[snippet]]This answer choice weakens Mindt's position by showing that the difference pointed out by Mindt's spokesperson is irrelevant as most of the sniggers buyers are young children who cannot read the different names of bars on the package.
