PrepTest 114, Section 4, Question 13

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A
  Correct

  The ads can reach the nonviewers indirectly. The children who watch television develop preferences; then those preferences influence the children who don't watch. Picture a child wanting the cereal that friends keep talking about, even without seeing its advertisement personally.

  Both groups could then favor the advertised cereals because of advertising, though only one group watched the ads. This isn't the earlier-viewing explanation I first considered. It is a route from ads to viewers to nonviewers, which makes matching preferences compatible with a significant advertising effect. A doesn't prove that this is the sole influence; it undermines the study's basis for ruling that influence out.

• B

  Accept this general claim: a preference for sweets isn't universal and can be influenced by the environment, including ads. That leaves open an effect, but it doesn't explain what is wrong with this particular comparison of cereal preferences. A is more direct: it shows how the supposedly separate groups could end up alike because advertising reaches one group through the other. B lacks that connection to the study's result.

• C

  This initially looks like the earlier-exposure answer I wanted. Now read which children it describes: only the group that watched television. It doesn't say the nonviewers had already seen the cereal ads.

  The viewing group being familiar with advertising is entirely consistent with the study's setup. We still need to explain why the nonviewing group has the same preferences. C doesn't reach that group, so it doesn't resolve the problem with my initial idea. A does reach it through peer influence. The resemblance to a prediction isn't enough if the answer applies to the wrong group.

• D

  This gives another similarity between the groups: neither favored low-sugar cereals despite heavy advertising. That doesn't supply evidence against the conclusion that advertising has little effect on these preferences. Nor should we go further and say it proves ads never work; an ad's influence could depend on the product. Either way, D doesn't expose the study's gap as A does.

• E

  Adults could respond differently from children. A difference between adult viewers and nonviewers doesn't show that the comparison of children was misleading. We would need a reason to carry the adult result over to the children, rather than assume the two age groups respond in the same way.