LSAT Question Explanation
PT 105, Section 4, Question 22
Sufficient AssumptionArgument structure
Supertasters taste sharp cheddar as more bitter than mild cheddar, but nontasters taste sharp cheddar as no more bitter than mild cheddar.
Supertasters prefer mild cheddar over sharp and nontasters don't have a preference. The more bitter a food is, the less children like it.
Explanation
This argument is flawed. We know that bitterness is disliked by children, but it doesn't have to be the reason why the supertasters prefer mild cheddar over sharp. Maybe cheddar cheese isn't bitter at all. Maybe the children experience one type of cheddar as more salty, or more spicy. Who knows.
This argument fails to eliminate alternative explanations and just assumes that bitterness explains the children's preferences. A sufficient assumption answer choice will prove the conclusion, that the preferences in cheese type are in fact based on perceived bitterness.
Answer choices
We don't care about this. This doesn't prove that bitterness explains the why some cheddars are preferred or not preferred within the different groups.
This is extremely unrelated to the conclusion and doesn't prove that bitterness is the quality that determines cheddar preferences.
If anything this weakens the argument by giving a potential alternative explanation.
This proves the conclusion. This tells us that nothing besides bitterness could account for the children's preferences.
We don't care how many foods the groups like, we care about what factor determined their preferred type of cheddar cheese.