A study found that consumers

Answer choices

1. A

   Relative vs. Absolute4% picked this

   During the study, for most of the advertisements more people went through the checkout lines after they were aired

   This answer is dealing with the raw number total of how many people went before vs. after the ad. But since we're talking likelihood, the raw numbers are irrelevant. We don't care if it's only 100 customers before the ad and 800 customers after the ad, or vice versa. The curious fact is expressed in likelihood, so we're judging it on a per capita basis, not a raw number basis. We're being told something like, "While only 15% of the shoppers prior to the ad bought advertised item X, around 60% of the shoppers after the ad bought X." That's a compelling difference, whether there is a higher raw number of shoppers before or after the ad.

   4%
2. B

   Correct91% picked this

   A large proportion of the consumers who bought a product shortly after the airing of an advertisement for it reported that they had not

   Why this is right

   This helps the plausibility of the author's story that hearing the ad caused people to buy the advertised product. This says that a large proportion of the shoppers who bought X shortly after an ad for X aired said, "I didn't come into the store intending to buy X". But they ended up buying X. Why? Something must have triggered them while they were in the store into wanting to buy X. Are we sure it was the ad? What if a friendly customer recommended X or their kid texted them while they were shopping and asked for X? No, we're not sure. But this definitely helps the plausibility of the story that the in-storer ad was what influenced them into buying X.

   Skill tested: Strengthen · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   91%
3. C

   Weakens, if anything3% picked this

   Many of the consumers reported that they typically bought at least one of the advertised products every time

   This provides an Alternate Explanation for why shoppers were buying the advertised products. It makes it sound like it was unrelated to the ad; they typically buy at least one of these every time they shop at the store (whether they hear an ad or not).

   3%
4. D

   Weakens0% picked this

   Many of the consumers who bought an advertised product and who reached the checkout line within 40 minutes of the advertisement's airing reported that

   This hurts the plausibility of the author's story that "the ad made them buy product X". After all, if the customers are saying, "What ad? I don't remember hearing any ad?", then it's less convincing that the ad played any causal role. (Obviously this doesn't prove they didn't hear the ad -- maybe they heard it subconsciously, but this answer on its face is undermining our belief in the author's story)

   0%
5. E

   Unclear Impact1% picked this

   Many of the consumers who bought an advertised product reported that they buy that

   This doesn't do anything one way or the other to help us assess the causal reason why people who bought an advertised product did so. The fact that many people buy these products only occasionally doesn't tell us anything about whether they entered the store with a plan to buy that item or were coerced into doing so by an ad they heard at the store.

   1%