DIFFICULT CR QUESTION

by **ViKaS** Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:34 pm

A particular phenomenon has been observed in the relationship between age and attire. The more formally a person is dressed, the older the average observer will gauge him or her to be. Thus, the average observer viewing two men, one wearing a business suit and the other wearing casual clothing, will generally estimate the man in the business suit to be five years older than the man wearing casual clothing.

The conclusion of the argument above would be more properly drawn if which of the following were true?

A) The age of the man wearing the business suit is greater than that of the man wearing casual clothing.

B) The older a man is, the more likely it is that he will wear a business suit.

C) The age of the man wearing the business suit is equal to the age of the man wearing casual clothing.

D) The average observer’s estimates of age are generally more accurate regarding casually dressed people than formally dressed people.

E) The average observer’s estimates of age are generally more accurate regarding formally dressed people than casually dressed people.

What should be the answer for this?

by **Guest** Wed Sep 10, 2008 10:15 pm

IMO,

It is C) The age of the man wearing the business suit is equal to the age of the man wearing casual clothing

In order to explain this phenomenon, both persons need to be SAME age so the only thing that can change how people judge their ages will be their dress.

What is the OA ?

by **ViKaS** Sun Sep 21, 2008 10:47 am

Anonymous Wrote:IMO,

It is C) The age of the man wearing the business suit is equal to the age of the man wearing casual clothing

In order to explain this phenomenon, both persons need to be SAME age so the only thing that can change how people judge their ages will be their dress.

What is the OA ?

Yes the OA is C.

But what is wrong with A ? We can directly infer A from the given conditions in the stimulus. please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks!

by **arunmmw** Sun Sep 21, 2008 12:48 pm

I got 'C', as i thought this question as assumption based question no other answer fits in.

(A) if option A is correct then probably wearing a suit does not makes any difference, this is infact close to a weakening question.
(C) if option 'C' is correct then wearing suit does makes difference in observers judgement on age.

by **RonPurewal** Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:22 am

ViKaS Wrote:But what is wrong with A ? We can directly infer A from the given conditions in the stimulus. please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks!

dude, no. choice (a) defeats the entire argument!
read the argument again: the point is that formal clothing makes people appear older. also, the crux of the whole phenomenon is that the effect is illusory: i.e., the people in formal dress aren't actually older; they just look that way.

if the men in suits actually are older, a la choice (a), then the fact that they appear older wouldn't prove anything about the effect of clothing at all.