A government survey released today shows that 80\% of the people who fly are satisfied with the service they receive from the airlines in this country. Three interviewers stood outside a major airport and asked people leaving the terminal, “Do you have any complaints about the flight you just got off?” Only 20 percent responded “yes!”

Which of the following, if true, would most undermine the conclusion of the argument above?

Question

A government survey released today shows that 80\% of the people who fly are satisfied with the service they receive from the airlines in this country. Three interviewers stood outside a major airport and asked people leaving the terminal, “Do you have any complaints about the flight you just got off?” Only 20 percent responded “yes!”

Which of the following, if true, would most undermine the conclusion of the argument above?

Accepted Answer

**Solution:**

1. The argument concludes that 80\% of flyers are satisfied based on two pieces of evidence: a government survey and interviews conducted outside an airport terminal.

2. The interviews found only 20\% of people leaving the terminal had complaints, supporting the survey's conclusion.

3. To weaken this conclusion, we need to find information that challenges the representativeness or validity of the interview data.

4. Option (a) states that 60\% of the people leaving the terminal were not passengers who had just completed a flight. This means the interviewers' sample included many people who were not relevant to the question, thus the 20\% complaint rate is not reliable or representative of actual flyers.

5. The other options do not significantly undermine the conclusion:
   - (b) A 1\% refusal rate is too small to affect the conclusion.
   - (c) Interviewing after a delayed flight might increase complaints, which would strengthen, not weaken, the conclusion.
   - (d) Interviewing 70\% at random still maintains representativeness.
   - (e) No official complaints filed later supports the conclusion.

**Answer:** Option (a) Sixty percent of the people coming out of the airline terminal were not people who had just gotten off a flight.

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