"Jeneta: Increasingly..." An Example of How to Solve Resolve the Paradox Questions
- Crown LSAT
- Jan 29
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 9
Resolve the paradox questions are one of the types of questions that you will find in your LSAT prep and this post will explain how to tackle them. Basically, you have two seemingly contradictory statements that you would think are opposing each other. You want to find an answer that explains "make everything make sense". Let's take a look at Question #2 from Section 2 of PrepTest 73 that begins "Jeneta: Increasingly".
What’s the apparent discrepancy?
When a salesperson thanks a customer, the customer also says “Thank you” (rather than “You’re welcome”).
But when a friend thanks a friend for a favor, the response is “You’re welcome.”
Why is this puzzling?
Typically, if someone thanks you for doing them a favor, you’d say “You’re welcome.” So it’s odd that customers respond to a salesperson’s “Thank you” with another “Thank you.”
How do we resolve the paradox?
We need an answer that shows why a commercial transaction elicits mutual thanks (“Thank you” ↔ “Thank you”) instead of the more typical “Thank you” ↔ “You’re welcome.”
Check each answer choice to see if it explains the difference:
(A) If customers thought they were doing salespeople a favor by buying something, it would be more likely they’d say “You’re welcome” rather than “Thank you,” so this fails to explain the observed behavior.
(B) Telling us that salespeople are instructed to thank customers doesn’t directly explain why customers also say “Thank you.”
(C) Whether salespeople see the transaction as a favor is irrelevant to how customers respond.
(D) A general claim about habit doesn’t clarify why the habit is different in commercial vs. personal contexts.
(E) This states that in a commercial transaction the benefits are mutual. Both the salesperson and the customer feel they receive value—hence both say “Thank you.” In a friend-favor scenario, the benefit is one-sided, so the person doing the favor hears “Thank you” and responds “You’re welcome.”
Answer (E) best resolves Jeneta’s observation. The key insight is that, in a business setting, both parties feel they are receiving something of value, prompting them both to express gratitude rather than having only one party express thanks and the other respond with “You’re welcome.”
Comments