PrepTest 146, Section 1, Question 5
Researchers asked 100 fifty-year-olds and 100 twenty-year-olds whether(49 more words not shown)
The reasoning above calls into(8 more words not shown)
- Ashowing that the(7 more words not shown)
- Boffering an alternative(6 more words not shown)
- Cshowing that one(4 more words not shown)
- Dcriticizing the motives(3 more words not shown)
- Eoffering a specific(1 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Giving blood isn't the only way to help people. The twenty-year-olds might volunteer at a soup kitchen, pick up litter, or help at an animal shelter. Even an accurate difference in blood donation wouldn't automatically settle which age group is more altruistic overall.
But that isn't the objection the author makes. The author questions whether the answers accurately describe behavior in the first place. Someone might say 'Yes, I give blood' because that sounds socially responsible, even when the person doesn't donate.
We could still ask why that problem would affect one age group more than the other. People of both ages might want to look good. The author hasn't proved that the reported difference is false, but has raised a possible problem with treating the reports as straightforward evidence of generosity.
What we’re looking for
The question asks how the author challenges the researchers' conclusion. My first description would be that people might give inaccurate answers to protect their image. We need a choice describing that move, not just any reasonable criticism we could make of the study.
Working the answers
- A
We aren't told that the selected people are unrepresentative of their age groups. Imagine recruiting the fifty-year-olds only from hospital staff, who might have unusual exposure to the need for blood donations, while recruiting the twenty-year-olds from a college. That could raise a concern about who was sampled. Here, however, the stated concern is that respondents may misreport their behavior. An accuracy problem isn't automatically a sampling problem.
- BCorrect
Wanting to give a socially acceptable answer offers an alternative explanation for some of the reports. The data needn't simply reflect how often people help others; they could partly reflect a desire to appear helpful.
'Alternative explanation' may sound different from my initial wording about inaccurate answers, but it captures that same idea. The author proposes another reason people might report donating blood, which gives us a reason for skepticism about the researchers' interpretation.
- C
We could argue that a helpful act doesn't let us directly observe the person's motives. But the author doesn't make that argument. The objection concerns whether respondents admit their actual behavior, not whether altruism can ever be observed. This is another possible criticism, not the one used here.
- D
The motives in question belong to the people answering the survey. The author doesn't accuse the researchers of wanting to make twenty-year-olds look bad or of pursuing some other biased agenda. Keep the respondents separate from the researchers.
- E
The author offers a general possibility, not a specific person or case. A story about a particular twenty-year-old who volunteers at a soup kitchen would be a concrete example, though it wouldn't by itself disprove a comparison of group averages. No such case is offered in the argument.
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