Researcher: Each subject in this experiment owns one car, and was

Explanation

In this research experiment, each subject was asked to estimate what portion of the nationwide population drove the same type of car as the subject, and everyone overestimated this percentage. The researcher hypothesizes that this tendency to overestimate is a result of the fact that car trends may be regional, with certain models more common in particular areas, leading the people in those areas to believe that their cars are equally well-represented nationally. The results of the research are consistent with this hypothesis, so the researcher concludes that certain models are indeed more common in certain areas:

Premise: If some cars are regionally over-represented, this would lead to overestimation.

Premise: This experiment shows that people tend to overestimate how well-represented their cars are nationally.

Conclusion: Cars must be more common in certain regions, leading to the referenced overestimation.

The problem is that the researcher takes one possible explanation of the research results and jumps to the conclusion that this one hypothesis must be accurate.

The question stem is, predictably, a Flaw in the Reasoning question, so the correct answer choice will point out that the researcher presumes that one possible explanation is the only possible explanation.

Answer choice (A): There is no need to estimate the likelihood that the population is well informed about such statistics—the point is that everyone overestimated how common their cars were. Since this choice does not describe a reasoning flaw, it can be safely ruled out.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. The researcher points to the fact that the regional auto over-representation hypothesis is supported by the experiment’s results, but appears to believe that the hypothesis is confirmed by those results.

Answer choice (C): The argument doesn’t need to account for the subjects’ coming from various places—the flaw regards the author’s hypothesis, and presumption that this theory is accurate.

Answer choice (D): Since the premises that are presented in the stimulus do not contradict one another, this cannot describe the reasoning flaw from the stimulus.

Answer choice (E): No statistical generalization is assigned in this stimulus: the researcher discusses one study and presents a hypothesis which attempts to explain people’s tendency to overestimate how common their cars are nationally.

The correct answer choice is (B)