Logical Reasoning

PT142 · S2 · Q11 Psychologists observing a shopping mall

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Psychologists observing a shopping mall parking lot found that, on average, drivers spent 39 seconds leaving a parking space when another car was quietly waiting to enter it, 51 seconds if the driver of the waiting car honked impatiently, but only 32 seconds leaving a space when no one was waiting.

Conclusion

Drivers feel possessive of their parking spaces even when pulling out, and the more a driver wants their space, the more posscoressive they feel.

Evidence

In a study of a mall parking lot, drivers averaged 32 secs to pull out of a parking space if no one was there, 39 seconds if someone was waiting patiently, and 51 second if someone was impatiently honking.

Evaluation

We have a Curious Fact - why are drivers taking longer to back out when someone is waiting and even longer to back out when someone is impatiently waiting?

The author's hypothesis is that people are really protective of their parking spaces, even more so if the person waiting is being a jerk about it. Like all Causal Interpretation arguments, we ask ourselves the same 2 questions: - How else can we explain the Curious Fact? - How plausible is the Author's hypothesis?

Goal

Since we're trying to Weaken, we either need a different way to explain why drivers are taking longer to back out, or we need some idea that undermines the hypothesis that drivers feel possessive of the parking spot they're leaving.

11.

Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the reasoning?

  1. Correct

    The more pressure most drivers

    Why this is right

    This gives us the alternate explanation we were looking for. They're not taking longer because they feel possessive of their spot and are reluctant to give it up. They're taking longer because the pressure of being watched as you're backing out of a spot makes you do it more cautiously (more slowly). Drivers presumably feel more pressure from the impatient waiters than from the quiet waiters, which explains why we go from 32 to 39 to 51 seconds, based on the continuum of how little to how much pressure the driver backing out is feeling.

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

    65% picked this

  2. The amount of time drivers

    Weak / No Impact

    The scenario of someone entering a parking space isn't a great test case for the author's hypothesis because a driver can't be possessive of something until they possess it. People would want this answer to be saying, "You're wrong, author. Look, these drivers aren't acting possessive of their parking spaces, even when people are impatiently waiting." And the author would say this case is irrelevant. The driver can't feel possessive yet, since it isn't their parking space until they've already entered it.

    4% picked this

  3. It is considerably more difficult

    Weak Impact

    This offers an alternate explanation for why it takes drivers longer to pull out when someone is waiting than when no one is waiting, but it doesn't offer an alternate explanation for why it takes drivers longer to pull out when an impatient person is waiting than when a patient person is waiting. In short, we'd pick this answer if (A) didn't exist, but (A) actually explains the 32 vs. 39 vs. 51, whereas this answer only explains the 32 vs. the 39/51.

    26% picked this

  4. Parking spaces in shopping mall

    No Impact

    We don't care whether this parking lot is representative of likelihood that other cars will be waiting. We'd only care if this parking lot is representative of how possessive drivers are likely to feel about their parking spaces. In other words, we don't care if other parking lots have more people waiting or fewer people waiting. We'd only care about if in other parking lots when people-waiting situations occur, are people more/less likely to take longer to back out.

    3% picked this

  5. Almost any driver leaving a

    Unclear Impact

    This is somewhat compatible with the author's story. The impatient driver honks and the possessive driver gets angry and thinks, "Hey! Chill out. This is my spot. Now I'm gonna make you wait by backing out extra slowly". Even if we did think of this as an alternate explanation for the 51 seconds, it still wouldn't give us a way to explain the 39 seconds for a driver that is politely waiting, so this answer would still be inferior to (A).

    2% picked this

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