PrepTest 131, Section 4, Question 23

Working the answers

• A

  This stops at the puzzle and overstates it. Rejecting a small offer seems at odds with getting the most money from this interaction. The author then explains how that response could have developed because it benefited people over time. A leaves out that explanation and makes a broad claim about economic decisions generally.

• B
  Correct

  The behavior appears to conflict with immediate self-interest, but the tendency behind it could have had evolutionary value. That captures both the puzzle and the explanation developed to resolve it.

• C

  This is a real part of the preferred explanation. Our emotions developed in repeated social interactions and aren't finely adjusted to anonymous, one-time encounters. But C stops before applying that idea to the behavior the author is trying to explain. It gives an explanatory ingredient rather than the full main point.

• D

  Maintaining group strength is the first account, which the author finds incomplete. The preferred account explains responders' reactions through the reputational benefits of rejecting low offers.

• E

  Rivalry appears in the first account, but the point there is that outcompeting fellow group members too severely can be counterproductive. The author doesn't conclude that beating rivals is the primary motive behind the game behavior.