PrepTest 144, Section 3, Question 22
In marketing their products, drug companies often send(46 more words not shown)
If the survey results are(9 more words not shown)
- APhysicians who do(20 more words not shown)
- BMost physicians believe(16 more words not shown)
- CSome physicians are(26 more words not shown)
- DSome physicians who(29 more words not shown)
- EAll physicians who(27 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The gifts don't influence me. It's the other doctors you should worry about.
That's the pattern in these reported beliefs. Most physicians think their own prescribing is unaffected, while a majority think most other physicians are influenced. But accurately reporting what people believe doesn't make those beliefs accurate. A gift could affect someone's choices without that person recognizing the influence.
The question asks what must be true if the survey results are accurate. We don't have to decide whether the physicians are too confident about themselves or too suspicious of their colleagues. We do need to recognize that the whole collection of beliefs cannot be right.
What we’re looking for
Suppose the majority who describe themselves as unaffected are correct. Then most physicians really are unaffected, so the belief that most other physicians are influenced cannot be correct across the surveyed group. Alternatively, if the judgments about widespread influence are right, some physicians must be mistaken about their own immunity. Either way, someone has misjudged the influence.
Working the answers
- A
We don't know which prescriptions are unnecessary. Being influenced by a gift and prescribing an unnecessary drug are not automatically the same thing, and the passage gives no comparison between doctors who accept gifts and those who refuse them. It reports beliefs about influence, not prescribing outcomes of this kind.
- B
Believing that gifts influence other physicians doesn't tell us which policy the respondents support. They might want new guidelines, favor some other response, or recommend no change. The survey doesn't ask about regulating the gifts, so we can't supply that preference for them.
- CCorrect
Some physicians must be mistaken about either their own susceptibility or that of other physicians. We cannot accept both sets of beliefs as entirely accurate: most doctors cannot really be unaffected while the widespread belief that most others are affected is also correct. C leaves open which judgments are mistaken, as it should.
- D
We aren't told what physicians who admit being influenced believe about the degree of influence on anyone else. They might think others are more affected, equally affected, or less affected. The survey's broad majorities don't establish a greater-influence comparison within this particular subgroup.
- E
This makes a claim about every physician who admits being influenced. The survey doesn't give us those physicians' views about others. For all we know, someone who admits influence thinks most colleagues resist it. We also aren't guaranteed that anyone admits influence at all: 'most' believe they are unaffected leaves open the possibility that all do.
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