Logical Reasoning

PT148 · S4 · Q3 Psychologist: In our study

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Psychologist: In our study, participants who were offered the opportunity to purchase a coffee mug were not willing to pay more than $5.

Given that ...

People in the study were not willing to pay more than $5 for a certain coffee mug.

Why is it that ...

If they were given that type of mug and asked to sell it, most of them wanted more than $5 for it.

Evaluate / Goal

We need a way to explain why the mug only seems to be worth "max $5" when they're considering buying it, but seems to be worth "over $5" when they're considering selling it.

The correct answer should point to a distinction about how we think about the value of things we might buy vs. how we think about the value of things we might sell.

3.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy described above?

  1. A person's assessment of the

    No Distinction

    This doesn't provide any difference between how we assess value when we're buying vs. when we're selling, so this has no usefulness when it comes to explaining how these people assessed a mug as having "max $5 value" when they were considering buying it but had "more than $5 value" when they were considering selling it. The inherent properties of the object were the same in both cases, so that doesn't explain the two different value assessments.

    5% picked this

  2. People are usually unable to

    Not Applicable

    This could potentially provide a distinction between how we assess value when we're buying vs. when we're selling, because when you're selling an object you've owned for a while, you've learned just how valuable that object can be (so your assessment of its value has gone up since when you first considered buying it). But that sort of explanation won't work for this situation because these study participants have not possessed the mug "for a long period of time". They were given a mug and asked immediately afterwards if they'd sell it for $5.

    0% picked this

  3. The amount a person is

    No Distinction

    This does not provide a difference between how we assess value when we're buying vs. when we're selling. This only mentions how we assess value when we're buying. And it doesn't even apply to our study participants, because they have no idea for how much the coffee mug they're considering "has been sold in the past".

    4% picked this

  4. Correct

    People tend to value an

    Why this is right

    This provides a distinction between how we assess value when we're buying vs. when we're selling. When we're selling an object, we own that object, and according to this answer we tend to value that object more than we would value a similar object that we don't own. Thus, the people who didn't own the mug but were offered the chance to buy it valued it at around $5, but the people who were given the mug (and then asked to sell it back) had already stamped the mug with the property of "I own this!". In doing so, it changes how their value-assessment functions. We can think of this as the Garage Sale effect. People considering buying a chess board at a Garage Sale might offer $5, whereas the people selling it think about how much value they've gotten out of that chess board and think, "Jeez, it seems like it's worth more than $5."

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

    88% picked this

  5. People are more likely to

    Opposite

    In this experiment, the people were placing a higher value on an object they were given. When they were given the mug, they valued it as worth more than $5. When they were considering purchasing it, they valued it as worth $5 max. This answer is saying that people usually place too low a value in objects they've been given.

    4% picked this

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