When a chain of service stations

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TopicsMost Supported

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Stimulus

When a chain of service stations began applying a surcharge of $0.25 per purchase on fuel paid for by credit card, the chain’s owners found that this policy made their customers angry. So they decided instead to simply raise the price of fuel a compensatory amount with cash. Customers were much happier with this policy.

What this question is testing

Most Supported

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence gap.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question

17.

Which one of the following generalizations does the situation described above most

Answer choices

Out of Scope0% picked this
People usually adopt beliefs without carefully assessing the evidence for and
Out of Scope: adopt beliefs Too Strong: usually It's not an automatic dealbreaker for an answer to generalize from one situation to generally, but it's a big red flag. What truly kills this answer is the fact the passage never talks about people "adopting beliefs" at all.
0%
No Distinction: benefits them personally6% picked this
People’s perceptions of the fairness of a policy sometimes depend on whether that policy
We're trying to explain the difference between paying $50.00 for gas with a $0.25 surcharge, and paying $50.25 for gas. Credit card customers were angry at the former but fine with the latter. Since they're paying the same total price either way ($50.25), the difference can't be a matter of "one system benefited them personally more than the other".
6%
No Distinction0% picked this
People usually become emotional when considering
No Distinction: financial issues Too Strong: usually We're trying to explain the difference between paying $50.00 for gas with a $0.25 surcharge, and paying $50.25 for gas. Credit card customers were angry (emotional) at the former but fine with the latter. Since both situations involve dealing with financial issues, we can't say that they got emotional in the former case because it dealt with financial issues.
0%
Out of Scope1% picked this
People often change their minds about issues that do not make significant differences
Out of Scope: don't make big difference The situation described was about gas prices. Is that an "issue that doesn't make a significant difference to their lives"? Who knows? We didn't talk about anything like that. For many people on tight budgets, the price of gas does make a significant difference to their lives. This answer also insinuates that credit card users went from angry to happier just because they "changed their minds", not because the gas stations changed their policies.
1%
Correct93% picked this
People’s evaluations of a situation sometimes depend less on the situation itself than on how it
Why this is right
We're trying to explain the difference between paying $50.00 for gas with a $0.25 surcharge, and paying $50.25 for gas. Credit card customers were angry at the former but fine with the latter. Since they're paying the same total price either way ($50.25), the only difference is in how the price is presented to them. Is it presented as "the normal price of gas + a surcharge" or is it presented as "the normal price of gas"? The credit card payers evaluated the former presentation angrily and the latter presentation more happily.
Skill tested: Most Supported · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
93%

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