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I posted this on 7Sage but I didn't like the response, so if someone could help me out I would be most appreciative!

So the correct answer is A. I'm really confused by the answer choices and the stimulus.

When I read it, I initially thought this is an extreme example that uses examples within examples because the whole point of the example is that people would elect to feel 75% of their age. However, the example keeps going back with the ages and I don't think his ultimate conclusion is representative of how someone at 48 years old would feel.

My issue with A is it says projecting many responses from many individuals, and while the stimulus acknowledges that it's example is using a hypothetical person not all the diversity of age responses recorded.

B) looked very attractive to me

C) Also looks attractive, but I think there isn't an overly sweeping generalization, it is making a generalization from recorded responses.

D) The first part of this looks good to me, but the author never claims one of the statements is false, he uses it to prove a point.

E) There is nothing about experimenter expectations of respondents, or manipulation of responses, so I think this answer choice is irrelevant.

This is a really bad argument. The author presupposes without warrant that the case at present (People feeling 75 percent of their age) has always been or will continue to be the case.

The author erroneously applies the results of the survey which applies to numerous people of a variety of ages to hypothetical earlier responses of single individuals ( e.g., 48 year old claiming he feels 36, a 36 year old claiming he feels like he's 27 ect..).


(A) A gets this right on the money.
(B) The author does not reinterpret the responses of the respondents, stop reading there, it's not at all descriptively accurate of the reasoning structure.
(C) No generalization is made in the argument, nor does he qualify any statement or make any counter examples, overall an egregious answer choice. Get rid of this.
(D) No contradiction is derived from any of the statements.
(E) The empirical evidence collected from the survey is not analyzed and used to support the claim that the results were manipulated by those conducting it.

A tricky question that is appropriately placed at the very end of the section,
but if all else fails, POE can get you to the correct AC.

(B) seems tempting at first, but the author only gives an EXAMPLE rather than actually restating what others said;
reasonable is also out of context.
(C) talks about a generalization and a counterexample, but I see no such thing in the stimulus.
(D) suggests contradictions may be that someone feeling 36 might actually feel 27, but the author isn't trying to PROVE something false;
rather, he/she is just bewildered after giving his/her piece of "evidence."
(E) is about manipulation, so it's another obvious wrong answer.

(A) is the only one that works.

"Projecting from responses collected at one time from many individuals of widely different ages
to HYPOTHETICAL earlier responses of a SINGLE individual at some of those ages."

What is this saying? The hypothetical "responses" from this imaginary person who is 48 are not by ACTUAL people.
The author falsely assumes that someone 48 feels 36, but if he/she feels 36, he/she really feels 27, etc.

That is NOT what the people are feeling. Read the stimulus carefully.
"People were asked in a survey how old they felt. They replied, almost unanimously, despite a great diversity of ages,
with a number that was 75% of their REAL age."

So it's true that a 100-year-old may feel 75 of his/her REAL age, which is 100,
but that's not to say he/she would feel 56 since 75 is NOT his/her real age.