PrepTest 121, Section 1, Question 11
Students asked by a psychologist to tell a(80 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- APeople tend to(14 more words not shown)
- BPeople tend not(8 more words not shown)
- CWe are actually(15 more words not shown)
- DPeople will notice(15 more words not shown)
- EPeople tend to(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Everyone saw that mistake, right? Maybe fewer people noticed than you think.
The volleyball example feels familiar. Imagine a player coming to the sidelines upset about a missed shot, only for a teammate to say, “I didn't even notice.” The player knows exactly what went wrong and assumes everyone else paid the same attention. That expectation can be mistaken.
The other examples show the same mismatch. The students telling lies expected more people to detect them than actually did. The student wearing the funny shirt expected more people to notice it than actually did. We may be intensely aware of something about ourselves without everyone around us sharing that awareness.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what these cases best illustrate. I'd predict that people overestimate how much others notice their appearance and behavior. Keep both sides of that comparison: what the person expects others to notice, and what others actually notice.
Working the answers
- A
This says other people are more aware of us than we are of ourselves. The examples don't show that. They show people expecting others to notice more than those observers actually notice. In the volleyball case, the player notices the poor performance while teammates notice it less often than expected.
- B
This drops the comparison with expectations. Some people do notice the lie, the poor play, or the funny shirt. The recurring point is that fewer people notice than the person expects, not a general finding that people don't notice others' appearance or behavior.
- C
Whose powers of observation are being judged? C concerns how well I think I notice other people compared with how well I actually notice them. The examples concern how well I think other people notice me. Those are different comparisons. A student can misjudge how many people saw the shirt without making any judgment about the student's own ability to observe others.
- D
We aren't given a rule that something must be specially highlighted before anyone notices it. A few people notice the shirt, for example, without any stated extra prompt drawing their attention. The evidence concerns exaggerated expectations, not a necessary condition for noticing.
- ECorrect
People think their own appearance and behavior attract more notice than they actually do. The lie, the poor play, and the shirt all fit: the person expects a larger audience for that detail than the evidence reveals. E preserves the comparison shared by all three examples.
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