PrepTest 142, Section 4, Question 9
People are usually interested in, and often even(45 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(21 more words not shown)
- AStatistical information tends(6 more words not shown)
- BMost people recognize(8 more words not shown)
- CThe more emotionally(14 more words not shown)
- DStatistical information is(7 more words not shown)
- EPeople tend to(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A story about one student's dramatic LSAT improvement can grab our attention. But that student's experience doesn't tell us what usually happens to everyone who studies the same way.
That's what makes these facts surprising. People pay attention to compelling stories and largely ignore statistics, even though the stories tend to be unrepresentative. How do their beliefs about society remain fairly accurate?
What we’re looking for
Maybe those beliefs come from somewhere else: school, or enough experience in their own lives to give them a broader picture. That would be one possible explanation. We need something that lets the accurate beliefs coexist with people's interest in misleading anecdotes. Simply explaining why stories attract attention won't answer that question.
Working the answers
- A
This might help explain why statistics attract less interest: they leave out the individual characteristics that make stories engaging. But we already know people pay little attention to statistics. We need to explain how their beliefs remain accurate, and A doesn't do that.
- BCorrect
People can be moved by a story while recognizing that it describes an exception. They might find the student's improvement inspiring without assuming that everyone using that approach will improve equally.
This takes a different route from our guess about other sources of information. It explains why paying attention to anecdotes needn't distort people's broader beliefs: they know not to treat an unusual case as representative of society. B doesn't mean anecdotes never change anyone's mind; it gives a reason their appeal can coexist with generally accurate beliefs.
- C
This tells us which anecdotes are more persuasive. It doesn't tell us why the resulting beliefs would be accurate. If compelling but unrepresentative stories are more likely to change people's minds, that leaves the original puzzle unresolved.
- D
Making statistics easier to understand could be helpful if people actually used those illustrated statistics. But D doesn't establish that this is happening or explain why the generally unrepresentative anecdotes people attend to leave their beliefs accurate. B directly addresses that missing connection.
- E
Emotional reactions could lead to accurate judgments or mistaken ones. E gives us no reason to expect accuracy. It describes a basis for beliefs about people without explaining the surprising reliability of broader beliefs about society.
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