Social Norms & Intellectual Property

Answer choices

1. A

   Mentioned in B5% picked this

   the relationship of social norms to intellectual

   The first few sentences of Passage B sum up the available legal protections for the intellectual property of recipes. Then the last sentence of that paragraph say that, "[Chefs very seldom use the trade secrecy laws they could]. Instead, three implicit social norms are operative."

   5%
2. B

   Out of Scope: evolution3% picked this

   the evolution of social

   Both passages talk about how norms in a given industry (comedy / cooking) work in place of intellectual property laws. Neither passage talks about how those norms have grown to change over time.

   3%
3. C

   Correct64% picked this

   the enforcement of social

   Why this is right

   In the final paragraph of Passage A, the 3rd and 4th sentences say, These norms are not merely hortatory. They are enforced with sanctions, including simple badmouthing and refusals to work with an offending comedian. Passage B never talks about how the norms are enforced. What happens if you copy a chef's recipe exactly? What happens if you pass information a chef revealed to you to others without their permission, or if you fail to give proper credit to developers of significant recipes? That passage never lists any consequences like badmouthing / blacklisting, etc.

   Skill tested: Locate Detail · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   64%
4. D

   Supported by Both / Neither2% picked this

   the limitations of social

   This answer, honestly, reads a bit ambiguously. By limitations of social norms, does this mean the way in which social norms limit the behavior of comics / chefs? If so, then both passages cover this, since both passages list out some of the ways in which a comic or chef is limited by norms against copying. If limitations of social norms mean "where can we see that there's clearly a limit to how much protection can be afforded by social norms", then neither passage discussed.

   2%
5. E

   Discussed by Both26% picked this

   the impact of social norms on

   This answer is a little frustrating because there's more explicit discussion in Passage A. The 2nd paragraph of A is talking about how creative output would suffer if intellectual property does not enjoy formal legal protection. And then the 3rd paragraph reveals that social norms substitute for intellectual property law. So the impact of social norms on creative output is seemingly similar to that formal legal protection. Passage B implies the exact same sentiment about the impact of norms on safeguarding intellectual property relating to recipes. It sounds like chefs, in absence of realistic formal legal protection, do not see their creative output go down, because social norms play the role of upholding their intellectual property rights. Even though it seems like Passage A more explicitly discusses create output ("scant production of creative works"), it never spells out the impact of social norms on creative output. We can infer what impact those norms would presumably have, but we can make the same inference in Passage B. Meanwhile, with the correct answer, we're explicitly told about enforcement of norms in comedy and we don't have any way to infer how norms in cooking are enforced.

   26%