Psychologists observing a shopping mall

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct65% picked this

   The more pressure most drivers feel because others are waiting for them to perform maneuvers with their cars, the less quickly they

   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%
2. B

   Weak / No Impact4% picked this

   The amount of time drivers spend entering a parking space is not noticeably affected by whether other drivers are waiting for them to do

   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%
3. C

   Weak Impact25% picked this

   It is considerably more difficult and time­ consuming for a driver to maneuver a car out of a parking space if another car is

   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.

   25%
4. D

   No Impact3% picked this

   Parking spaces in shopping mall parking lots are unrepresentative of parking spaces in general with respect to the likelihood that other cars

   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%
5. E

   Unclear Impact2% picked this

   Almost any driver leaving a parking space will feel angry at another driver who honks impatiently, and this anger will influence the amount

   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%