argument76 by [728西安]小红莓

小红莓UID: 2641349

TOPIC: ARGUMENT76 - The following appeared as part of an article in a health and beauty magazine.

"A group of volunteers participated in a study of consumer responses to the new Luxess face cream. Every morning for a month, they washed their faces with mild soap and then applied Luxess. At the end of that month, most volunteers reported a marked improvement in the way their skin looked and felt. Thus it appears that Luxess is truly effective in improving the condition of facial skin."
WORDS: 459
TIME: 00:29:19
DATE: 2009-7-22 21:26:51

Merely based on a study of consumer responses to the new Luxess face cream, in which the consumers washed their faces with mild soap and then applied Luxess, and after a month most volunteers reported a marked improvement in the way their skin looked and felt, the author concludes that Luxess is truly effective in improving the condition of facial skin. The argument seems logical, while careful analysis reveals several critical flaws in it.

To begin with, the author fails to provide the number of the sample and whether the samples are representative. If the number of the volunteers is too small, it hard to make a general conclusion that the Luxess has effect on all customers. Also, if the volunteers are selected, and for example, have the same age, health condition, sexual and so on, the study may not representative for all people. Without given the details about the study, I could not convinced by the argument.

Next, there is no scientific statistics show that the skins of the volunteers are really better than before. The feeling in mind may be influenced by many reasons, and as a consequence would not objectively represent the condition of their skin. Perhaps the volunteers feel better because of the try of new products or just the participation in the study, but their skin does not have any improvement actually. As the author provides no evidence that the skin really have improvement, the argument is dubious.

Additionally, even if the volunteers do have marked improvement of their skin, it may be resulted from some other reasons. Firstly, we do not know the condition of the skin before using the Luxess. Perhaps the volunteers have some diseases on their skin and the Luxess face cream is only effective in that kind of diseases. Secondly, we do not know whether the mild soap have effect on the volunteers' skin. Perhaps it is the mils soap, rather than the Luxess face cream that improve the way their skin looked and felt. Without ruling out all the other possibilities, the author could not make a hasty conclusion.

Even if the Luxess really improved the volunteers' skin in the study, it may have some side-effects when applied to other people. Perhaps some people are sensitive to the Luxess and therefore feel uncomfortable and even cause diseases instead of having any improvement of their skin.

To sum up, the argument is unconvincing as it stands. To strengthen it, the author should give clear evidence that the skin condition of the volunteers is really improvement, and it result from the Luxess rather than some other reasons. To better assess the argument, I would also need to know if the Luxess face cream have side-effects when applied to other people.