Logical Reasoning

PT155 · S4 · Q5 An online auction site conducted

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An online auction site conducted a study of auction techniques involving 8,000 used cars, divided into two equal groups.

Given that...

In one group of used cars being auctioned, each car’s listing included a brief description of its condition.

In a second group of used cars, the description of each car additionally listed defects of the car.

How can it be that...

More cars in the second group sold, and cars in the second group fetched higher prices compared to comparable cars in the first group.

Evaluate

It would make sense for someone to avoid buying a car if they know that the car has defects. If someone does buy a car with defects, it would make sense for them to want to pay a lower price.

So why, in this situation, did more of the cars with known defects get sold, and why did they tend to sell for higher prices?

It's possible that people felt more comfortable buying one of these cars when they knew what defects it had. Maybe they weren't as trusting of used car descriptions that didn't list any defects.

Maybe the defects that were listed tended to be much more minor and less expensive to fix than the defects that used cars commonly have.

Goal

We'll expect an answer to explain why buyers viewed knowing about the defects as an advantage, making them more likely to buy the cars and/or willing to pay more.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain why the second group of cars had better sales results than the first group?

Most people are skeptical of
No Distinction
This doesn't explain the difference between the two groups of cars. If this is true, buyers would tend to be skeptical of the descriptions of cars in both groups. It doesn't explain why buyers would buy more cars from the second group or pay more for those cars.
1% picked this
People are likely to assume
Opposite
This should make buyers more likely to buy cars in the first group and possibly pay more for those cars. It doesn't explain why more cars in the second group sold or fetched higher prices.
1% picked this
Prospective buyers are likely to
No Impact
We haven't been told that the defects listed for the second group of cars were "buried in a detailed description of the condition." The listings for the first group included "brief descriptions." We aren't told how brief or detailed the descriptions were for cars in the second group. Without that information, this answer has no impact.
2% picked this
Correct
Listing defects in a description
Why this is right
This helps to explain why buyers were more comfortable buying cars that had defects listed in their descriptions. A common concern when buying a used car is that we'll discover a major problem after buying it. If buyers assumed that any major defects were listed, they would tend to be less worried about this kind of unpleasant surprise.
Skill tested: Paradox · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
94% picked this
With thousands of cars for
No Impact
We aren't actually told that any of the descriptions were "detailed." Even if we accept that including a list of defects would make a description "detailed," all this answer does is tell us that prospective buyers were only likely to read the descriptions for a small number of cars in the second group. This doesn't explain why more of those cars sold or why they fetched higher prices.
1% picked this

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