Q7 - Although most people know what

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
Inference (most supported)

Stimulus Breakdown:
It's hard to get rid of one's bad habits because the pain of stopping the habit is immediate, while the benefit of stopping the habit is remote.

Answer Anticipation:
The causal bridge wording of "this is because" is usually a solid indicator of the two ideas they want us to merge. In this case, the question stem is asking about people who DO end their bad habits. We'll have to take the reason they gave for NOT being able to end a bad habit and flip it. These people must be able to downplay the immediate pain and appreciate the remote benefit.

Correct Answer:
A

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) This looks good. It sounds like the opposite of what usually thwarts people from stopping their bad habits. "Vividly imagine remote benefit" sounds like the opposite of "dimly perceive remote benefit".

(B) Not sure if we're referring to the pain of quitting the habit or some other pain, but this doesn't match up with anything from the stimulus.

(C) Speculative: This could help explain why some people can end their bad habits, but this doesn't reinforce anything we read in the paragraph.

(D) How would this explain why someone was able to get rid of a bad habit?

(E) Speculative: This could help explain the motivation for wanting to get rid of the bad habit, but it doesn't touch on what the stimulus identified as the main psychological problem that thwarts us from doing so.

Takeaway/Pattern: One of the most common "most supported" inferences we see throughout LR and RC is that when we're told that "X happens because of Y", it supports the notion that "If Y weren't the case, then X wouldn't be the case". Here we have "People can't quit their bad habit because the benefit of doing so is perceived only dimly". And our correct answer is saying "If people DIDN'T perceive the benefit dimly, then maybe they COULD quit their bad habit".

#officialexplanation

[lisahollchang]

This one caught me off guard as unusually difficult for being so early in the section because of the attractiveness of both the right answer (A) and the wrong answer (E). It seems that "vividly remembering the pain caused them in the past by their bad habits" would be an equally good alternative to allowing them to successfully change a bad habit. I ended up choosing A simply because it seemed to "flow" better with the logic of the argument. Is there any other reason why A is right and E is wrong? Thanks!

[bbirdwell]

The key facts from the argument:
It is very difficult to end a bad habit because
1. ending a habit is immediately painful
2. the benefit is perceived only dimly

The question asks us what we can infer about people who successfully end bad habits. Pertaining to the two facts above, we have two possible options here: either they have a high tolerance for "vivid and immediate" pain, or they have a faculty for perceiving future benefit.

(A) says the second one -- these people can imagine distant benefit.

(E) doesn't matter -- memories have nothing to do with the lack of success that most people have in ending bad habits.

[zainrizvi]

I always get confused between conditional and causal reasoning. How can we assume that people who are successful don't have the two causes. What if they have a third alternative factor that outweighs other considerations. So while things are vividly painful, and remote things are perceived dimly, they are still able to be sucessful.

I just don't know if we can be confident in saying that X and Y cause B, then saying because X and Y aren't present, you have NOT B.

Again, I am diagramming using conditional relationships but it might not be applicable.

[bbirdwell]

How can we assume that people who are successful don't have the two causes.

Here's what it says:
MOST find ridding habit very difficult because X and Y.

It's true, there is a difference between finding something "very difficult," and being "unsuccessful" at it. But in this context, this is a pretty reasonable assumption to make, and thus A is the most reasonable.

If I said:
Most people find it hard to run because their shoes are uncomfortable and they don't have enough time.

Then it would be fairly reasonable to conclude that the people who DON'T find it hard to run either have comfortable shoes or sufficient time.

Now, that's not provable. But it's reasonably supported, especially if I put it next to four choices that are not supported at all.

This is not a good candidate for causal diagramming because of the "most." Extreme language (whenever, each, all, every) is better suited for that kind of diagramming.

[jpchris3]

Is (D) wrong because the vividly painful & remote benefit are pyschological, and therefore not "behaviorial characteristics?" I chose (D) because if people weren't aware they were going to experience these, then they could have a fighting chance to quit. Not sure if this makes any sense....

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

I chose (D) because if people weren't aware they were going to experience these, then they could have a fighting chance to quit.

Interesting perspective, but answer choice (D) is suggesting that the people most likely to end their bad habits are the ones who aren't even aware of their bad habits.

The information does nothing to speak of people who are unaware of personal behavioral characteristics. Instead it discusses the immediate of quitting vs the dim future potential of benefits. So those people who can either suppress the current pain or can intensify the future benefit would be the ones most likely to end their own bad habits. Answer choice (A) accomplishes the latter of the two possibilities.

Hope that helps!

[msslater]

To take this a step further in understanding,

If an AC were to read: "Have the ability to withstand the immediate and painful after effects of ending a bad habit"

Would this AC be correct and take priority over AC A? Considering it is a MOST strongly support inference question.

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Hey msslater, good question. Your hypothetical answer choice sounds good, but it would not take precedent over answer choice (A). They'd simply both be correct--you will not need to decide which of two answer choices is more correct.

Hope that helps!

[dontmesswmeow]

For me, I just intuitively chose (A) after judging between (A) and (E).

But my principle in solving this question was that I wanted to go opposite to what's presented in the stimulus as the question is asking us the trait of the opposite type of person to what's already described there.

Unsuccessful people in fixing their bad habits
v.
Successful people in deserting their bad habits.


Accordingly, although this is an inference question, I think we could use kind of a conditional logic.

You can take a contrapositive of the bad habit addicts.

stopping bad habits are painful + benefit by fixing them seems not tangible --> no ability to remove bad habits

Conversely,

Ability to remove bad habits (which is the question) ---> ~(painful stopping of bad habits) or ~(fixing benefit seems not tangible)

i.e.

Ability ---> (removing bad habits are/deemed not painful) or (fixing benefit seems tangible)

Voila!

The ultimate takeaway from this question (for me) was

that the correct answer choice should reflect as much items/conditions as possible mentioned in the stimulus, which eventually means it should be most provable 'with the stimulus' and relevant to the story that was told in the stimulus. Or, try to make use of the items/conditions listed/given in the stimulus and question stem. It should be down-to-earth!