Argument200 勇往直前 by forest

forestlevyUID：2320694

TOPIC: ARGUMENT200 - Statistics collected from dentists indicate that three times more men than women faint while visiting the dentist. This evidence suggests that men are more likely to be distressed about having dental work done than women are. Thus, dentists who advertise to attract patients should target the male consumer and emphasize both the effectiveness of their anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to nervous or suffering patients.
WORDS: 453          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2005-7-28 23:05:53

In this argument, the author claims that dentists should manage to attract more male consumers by emphasizing both the effectiveness of their anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to patients simply because evidence shows that men are three times more nervous while visiting the dentist than women. This assertion, which seems to be convincing at the first glance, is problematic in several crucial aspects.

First and foremost, it is no more ridiculous to ascertain that male patients are more likely to be distressed on dental work merely because of the ratio of patients in different sexes who fainted in dentists' clinics. If much more men, three more times shall I suppose, tend to visit dentists than women do, three times of faint male patients can never show the tendency of more intensity. Or, even if the proportion of once fainted men ARE bigger than that of women, one can still not to safely draw the conclusion that men are more likely to be distressed. There are lots of ways for human beings to react against nervous and faint is only one of them: people may sweat, flush, shiver, or even fever when they feel strained, and obviously these symptoms are not counted in the investigation mentioned above. Without taking all these people into account, the conclusion is definitely presumptuous.

Furthermore, even granted that more men DO feel agitated during dental work, whether to focus advertisements towards male patients is still doubtful. Men tend to be more immune to advertisements and ignoring this basic fact can cause invertible loss-after spending a lot of money in advertising, few more male patients may be attracted. Under this circumstance, surveys, in which one can quantify the influences of dental advertisements towards both men and women, are indispensable for those dentists who want to expand their business.

Finally, even if the advertisements can significantly allure more men, to highlight the effectiveness of anesthetic techniques and the sensitivity of their staff to suffering and nervous patients might still be open to question. As known to all, in many cases it is not the pain that brings about strains and discomforts. Large percentage of people feel that they are doomed merely because of a sight on the "twinkling" and "sharp" "trills". To solve this complex, simply stressing there would be no pain at all is not enough: psychological analysis is also essential for a perfect advertisement.

In conclusion,  the argument is unpersuasive as it stands, because evidences cited in the analysis can not support to what the author maintains strongly. To strengthen the argument, the author should provide more extensive surveys and pay more attention in the analysis of potential customers, both in advertising field and psychological aspect.