Q3 - Columnist: Polls can influence

[stephanieledesma88]

Im having trouble understanding why answer choice A is the correct answer. Why would the influence of poll results matter 2 weeks prior to the election when we're only talking about one week prior? I chose B and immediately eliminated A because I thought it was out of scope...

[timmydoeslsat]

Im having trouble understanding why answer choice A is the correct answer. Why would the influence of poll results matter 2 weeks prior to the election when we're only talking about one week prior? I chose B and immediately eliminated A because I thought it was out of scope...

Answer choice A is telling us that few people are influenced by polls in the two weeks prior to the election. This includes the one week prior!

[zaidjawed]

Hey Guys,
The correct answer choice for this question struck me as somewhat distinct from other Weaken answer choices. By that I mean, the correct answer choice here seems to directly contradict one of the premises. In my experience with the LSAT, I don't think I've come across too many of those. Moreover, I'm sitting here with the Powerscore bible in front of me and I see it saying that rarely does a weakener directly contradict the premises on which a conclusion rests. So, would you guys say that this answer choice represents one of those rare occasions in which such a situation does happen?

I'd really like to know what you guys think.

Thanks

[zaidjawed]

anyone?

[ohthatpatrick]

I agree with you and Powerscore that LSAT doesn't usually contradict a premise, but there are a couple of outlier exceptions.

But I don't think that this is one of those exceptions.

What does (A) contradict? Did the author say that polls published during the two weeks prior DO influence people?

The only thing the author mentioned about polls influencing people is the first sentence, which merely says that polls CAN influence voters' decisions.

(A) doesn't contradict this.

I can say "people can scale Mt. Everest" as well as "few people can scale Mt. Everest" and be perfectly consistent.

For nerds only:
"polls can influence voters' decisions" literally means AT LEAST ONE poll has at one time influenced at least one voter's decision.

"few people are influenced by polls" literally tells us that LESS THAN 50% of people are influenced by polls.

The only thing the author says about polls published in the two weeks prior to an election is that they don't leave enough time for anyone to dispute the polls' findings.

Choice (A) doesn't address that idea at all.

So (A) doesn't contradict anything the author said, but it DOES cast doubt on the ability of a poll published soon before an election to do much to sway the electorate.

=== other answers ===

(B) This mildly weakens, but it leaves open the big question of whether publication of poll results would influence a close election race.

(C) This strengthens.

(D) This doesn't clearly strengthen or weaken. Drawing attention to a candidate's late gains could distort public perception or give the public a correct, updated snapshot of the election.

(E) Connecting the ban on last-second polls to informed citizenry is really out of scope. Also, the statistic is very wishy-washy. Saying that X is generally not better than Y gives you no clear indication of whether X or Y is better. It could be that most of the time Y is better, or it could be that most of the time X and Y are the same.

Hope this helps.