Psychologists recently conducted a study in which people from widely

Question

Psychologists recently conducted a study in which people from widely disparate cultures were asked to examine five photographs. Each photograph depicted the face of a person expressing one of five basic human emotions - fear, happiness, disgust, anger, and sadness. The people in the study were asked to identify the emotion being expressed in each photograph. For each photograph, everyone identified the same emotion. This shows that people are genetically predisposed to associate certain facial expressions with certain basic emotions.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

(A) For each photograph, the emotion that the subjects agreed was being expressed was the emotion that the person photographed was, in fact, feeling.
--People fake emotions many times (they might be happy inside but showing their anger via facial expressions) --out of scope

(B) One's emotional disposition is not influenced by one's culture.
--Close contender. But it doesn't explain that how identification of emotions is genetically linked in humans

(C) Some behaviors that are present in people from widely disparate cultures are nonetheless culturally influenced.
--This weakens the argument. Anyways, this option is out of scope because there will always be "some" people.

(D) If there is a behavior common to people of widely disparate cultures, then there is probably a genetic predisposition to that behavior.
--Correct.

(E) The people whose faces were depicted in the photographs were not all from the same culture.
--Out of scope

nishantd88 · Answer

Premise: The observation of a study is that people of disparate cultures reacted in a similar manner to an experiment or situation.
Conclusion: The result shows that there is a genetic predisposition that led to this.

The assumption is that the commonality in behavior is because of the genetic predisposition.

Option D states this and hence is the correct answer.

gvvsnraju@12 · Answer

D. Shift in the Conclusion.( Generalized conclusion drawn from a specific study). Negating D will shatter the conclusion.

gmatexam439 · Answer

Psychologists recently conducted a study in which people from widely disparate cultures were asked to examine five photographs. Each photograph depicted the face of a person expressing one of five basic human emotions - fear, happiness, disgust, anger, and sadness. The people in the study were asked to identify the emotion being expressed in each photograph. For each photograph, everyone identified the same emotion. This shows that people are genetically predisposed to associate certain facial expressions with certain basic emotions.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

(A) For each photograph, the emotion that the subjects agreed was being expressed was the emotion that the person photographed was, in fact, feeling.
 --People fake emotions many times (they might be happy inside but showing their anger via facial expressions) --out of scope

(B) One's emotional disposition is not influenced by one's culture.
 --Close contender. But it doesn't explain that how identification of emotions is genetically linked in humans

(C) Some behaviors that are present in people from widely disparate cultures are nonetheless culturally influenced.
 --This weakens the argument. Anyways, this option is out of scope because there will always be "some" people.

(D) If there is a behavior common to people of widely disparate cultures, then there is probably a genetic predisposition to that behavior.
 --Correct.

(E) The people whose faces were depicted in the photographs were not all from the same culture.
 --Out of scope

Adi93 · Answer

Hi  gmatexam439

Can you give some more explanation to reject choice B on strong grounds.

Thanks!

Nightmare007 · Answer

Hi i think B is defender assumption while D is supporter assumption.
 abhimahna ,  GMATNinja , Can you please explain how to eliminate B over D.

Thank you

abhimahna · Answer

Hey Nightmare007 , I am happy to help

Let's understand the argument first. Premise: When disparate culture people were asked to identify the emotions, everyone identified the same emotion. Conclusion: People are genetically predisposed to associate certain facial expressions with certain basic emotions. That means author has made some link between How disparate culture people are behaving with the genetic predisposition. Option B: This option is playing around only with the premise. Assumption is something that strengthens the link between a premise and the conclusion. Also, B is too extreme. Maybe emotional disposition is influenced? I don't care. I need to see how culture and genetics are related. B is not doing that job. Hence, B is wrong. Option D: It clearly makes the link between the premise and the conclusion as I mentioned above. Hence, it is the correct answer. Does that make sense?

Nightmare007 · Answer

Thank you  abhimahna ,
 I get it where i was going wrong. In assumptions we need to concentrate ONLY on the bridge between premise and conclusion.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Psychologists recently conducted a study in which people from widely

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