smashingpumpkins wrote:
X: When a rare but serious industrial accident occurs, people respond by believing that such accidents are becoming more frequent. This belief is irrational. After all, being dealt four aces in a hand of poker, a rare event, hardly increases one's chances of being dealt four aces in a future hand.
Y: To the contrary, the belief is rational because it results in people's sensing a danger to themselves not previously sensed and taking precautionary actions to prevent similar accidents in the future.
Y's attempt to counter X's claim is best described by which of the following?
(A) It questions the aptness of the analogy drawn by X.
(B) It makes apparent X's failure to consider how people vary in their responses to a serious accident.
(C) It shifts the basis for judging rationality to considerations of utility.
(D) It offers an alternative explanation of why people form incorrect beliefs.
(E) It challenges X's assumption that the occurrence of a single event is sufficient to change a belief.
By POE, I got to C.
A - does not question the aptness of the analogy. as a mater of fact, Y doesn't say anything about the analogy presented by X.
B - completely irrelevant.
C - looks good, although the language is complex.
D - no explanation is given why people form incorrect beliefs. moreover, Y considers that the beliefs are rational.
E - it does not.
eliminated all but C, and although C is hard to comprehend, still other answers are flawed.