Researchers asked volunteers to imagine they were running a five-kilom

Question

Researchers asked volunteers to imagine they were running a five-kilometer race against 50 people and then against 500 people, races in each of which the top 10 percent would receive a $1,000 prize. Asked about the effort they would apply in the respective cases, the volunteers indicated, on average, that they would run slower in the race against the greater number of people. A likely explanation of this result is that those of the volunteers who were most comparatively inclined—those who most tended to compare themselves with others in the social environment—determined (perhaps unconsciously) that extreme effort would not be worthwhile in the 500-competitor race.

Which of the following would, if known to be true, most help justify the explanation offered above?

A. The volunteers who were most comparatively inclined were also those that had the greatest desire to win a $1,000 prize.
B. The volunteers who were the least comparatively inclined had no greater desire to win the $1,000 than those who were the most comparatively inclined.
C. The volunteers who were most comparatively inclined were likely to indicate that they would run the two races at the same speed.
D. The most comparatively inclined volunteers believed that they were significantly less likely to finish in the top 10 percent in the race against 500 than in the race against 50.
E. Volunteers were chosen for participation in the study on the basis of answers to various questions designed to measure the degree to which the volunteers were comparatively inclined.

CR73241.01
OG2020 NEW QUESTION

KarishmaB · Accepted Answer

The volunteers indicated, on average, that they would run slower in the race against the greater number of people. Say, they will invest an effort of 9 (on a scale of 1 -10) in 50 participant race and 7 in 500 participant race.
Why?

A likely explanation is that those of the volunteers who were most competitive determined that extreme effort would not be worthwhile in the 500-competitor race.
(So they reduced the effort they would apply in 500 participant race bringing the avg down)

A. The volunteers who were most comparatively inclined were also those that had the greatest desire to win a $1,000 prize.

It doesn't do anything for our explanation. It doesn't help to prove that competitive people feel that effort is not worthwhile in the larger race and that is why they plan to invest less effort. The distinction needs to be made in the two diff races by the competitive people, not between different types of people.

B. The volunteers who were the least comparatively inclined had no greater desire to win the $1,000 than those who were the most comparatively inclined.

Same logic as above. The distinction needs to be made in the two diff races by the competitive people, not between different types of people.

C. The volunteers who were most comparatively inclined were likely to indicate that they would run the two races at the same speed.

It weakens our explanation. We are saying that competitive people feel that running that hard in the larger race is not worthwhile.

D. The most comparatively inclined volunteers believed that they were significantly less likely to finish in the top 10 percent in the race against 500 than in the race against 50.

If this is true, we are given that competitive people believed that they were less likely to win with more people. Hence it makes sense that they would feel that extreme effort would not be worthwhile in the 500 participant race. Then our explanation makes more sense. Correct.

E. Volunteers were chosen for participation in the study on the basis of answers to various questions designed to measure the degree to which the volunteers were comparatively inclined.

Doesn't strengthen our explanation.

Answer (D)

DavidTutorexamPAL · Answer

The given explanation is that 'people who compare themselves to others decided to put less effort in a race with 500 then with 50 people because they thought the effort would not be worthwhile'. The key logical link is between 'how many people are in the race' and 'is it worthwhile to invest effort'. We'll look for such an answer, a Logical approach.

(D) is the only relevant option and is our answer.

Mo2men · Answer

Hi David,

Thanks for your explanation.

I have a question. Is this an 'assumption' question as tagged above or 'strengthen' question ?
i'm confused.

DavidTutorexamPAL · Answer

Hey  Mo2men ,

Neither IMO; 'evaluate the argument' is enough.
But the real question is -- does it matter? The similarity between different 'types' of questions in CR is far greater than the differences between them. End of the day, to understand the reasoning of the passage you need to be able to break down its logical structure and identify the relevant links betweeen its parts (be they weakeners, strengtheners, assumptions, required justifications or what have you).

KarishmaB · Answer

Responding to a pm:

If the competitively inclined people feel and indicate that they would run the two races at the same speed, then they certainly don't feel that extreme effort is not worthwhile with 500 people but it is worthwhile with 50 people. They feel that both races should be given the same effort. So option (C) does not justify our explanation; in fact it is against our explanation.

mba757 · Answer

Conclusion : A likely explanation of this result is that those of the volunteers who were most comparatively inclined determined (perhaps unconsciously) that extreme effort would not be worthwhile in the 500-competitor race.

Which of the following would, if known to be true, most help justify the explanation offered above?

A. The volunteers who were most comparatively inclined were also those that had the greatest desire to win a $1,000 prize.
 This doesn’t help justify the explanation. BOTH races offer the $1,000 prize. Why would this justify why these SAME competitors would see the 500-competitor race as not as worthwhile?

B. The volunteers who were the least comparatively inclined had no greater desire to win the $1,000 than those who were the most comparatively inclined.
 This doesn’t justify about the competitors that were the most comparatively inclined. It doesn’t focus on the subset of the population the conclusion focuses on.

C. The volunteers who were most comparatively inclined were likely to indicate that they would run the two races at the same speed.
 This levels out the factors of the argument even more. If the extreme effort is NOT worthwhile in the 500-competitor race, why would they run the two races at the SAME speed?

D. The most comparatively inclined volunteers believed that they were significantly less likely to finish in the top 10 percent in the race against 500 than in the race against 50.
  The volunteers believed that extreme effort was not worthwhile in one of the races BECAUSE they also believed that they were significantly less likely to finish in the top percent in that very race over the other. This makes sense and helps JUSTIFY the explanation.

E. Volunteers were chosen for participation in the study on the basis of answers to various questions designed to measure the degree to which the volunteers were comparatively inclined.
 So they were probably well-suited for each race then. But this doesn’t help justify why they would not give extreme effort over one race over the other. If they were well-suited for the races, why not give the appropriate level to win? Does NOT matter HOW they were chosen. They were just chosen and didn’t want to give extreme effort in one race compared to another race then gives an explanation. We need to justify this explanation. This answer doesn’t do so.

idilbayar · Answer

Dear experts  KarishmaB   GMATNinja   MartyTargetTestPrep  , 
I thought the same thing as  tribui  . I eliminated this answer choice because option D says nearly the same thing as the explanation given in the question.
Can you please explain this issue?
Thank you so much.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Here's what the passage says:

A likely explanation of this result is that those of the volunteers who were most comparatively inclined—those who most tended to compare themselves with others in the social environment—determined (perhaps unconsciously) that extreme effort would not be worthwhile in the 500-competitor race.

Here's what (D) says:

D. The most comparatively inclined volunteers believed that they were significantly less likely to finish in the top 10 percent in the race against 500 than in the race against 50.

We can see that what (D) says is a little more specific that what the passage says and is a VERY BASIC explanation of what the passage says.

Thus, (D) does not really restate what the passage says, and meanwhile, no other choice works at all.

So,, (D) is the best answer.

KarishmaB · Answer

It isn't the same but if it were, that is exactly what would make it a perfect answer. 
This is good enough though.

Here is what I mean:

Assume a simple argument broken into its premises and conclusion (A step you MUST ALWAYS perform)

Premises: 
A is similar to B.
B is similar to C.

Conclusion:
A is similar to C.

Note that it is not a perfect conclusion. It is possible that A and B are similar in different characteristics while B and C are similar in different ones.

Say we have to support the conclusion. We have to provide data that helps us with our conclusion. If I were to say "A and C share many common characteristics" then it would support our conclusion. Note that it does not repeat any data of the premises. It says what the conclusion is saying. When we say it should bring in new info, it means it should don't repeat what is already given to us in the premises. If it establishes as a fact what the conclusion is saying that viola, our job is done. That is the option we need to strengthen or even establish our conclusion.

Now if these were our premises:

Premises: 
A is similar to B.
B is similar to C.
A and C share many common characteristics

Now does it make sense to conclude that A is similar to C? Sure it does. Now I am more inclined to believe that A is similar to C. It was not given before. It is what we were trying to prove.

This is exactly what is happening here.

QIQI919 · Answer

I chose E because from "Asked about the effort they would apply in the respective cases, the volunteers indicated, on average, that they would run slower in the race against the greater number of people. ”, the "run slower" result is  for all the volunteers, at an average level . However, the explanation is that "most comparatively inclined determined that extreme effort would not be worthwhile in the 500-competitor race."
How many of the volunteers in this group are comparatively inclined? It could be a very, very small percentage. So how can the psychology of the most comparatively inclined volunteers cause people to run more slowly on average overall? Unless the experiment chose comparatively inclined volunteers. Otherwise I think the explanation would be fatally flawed, because the subject of the explanation and that of the phenomenon would be so different. So I chose option E, even though it doesn't explicitly state that the volunteers are more inclined.
On the contrary, Option D “The most comparatively inclined volunteers believed that they were significantly less likely to finish in the top 10 percent in the race against 500 than in the race against 50.” seems that just a paraphrase of "extreme effort would not be worthwhile in the text 500-competitor race. " It provides little new information, so I don't think it most help justify the explanation.
Or, if option E makes it more clear that volunteers are being screened comparatively inclined, does that possibly make it the correct option?
Could someone explain this? I really can't understand. Thank you so much

NEYR0N · Answer

I would like to request an experts reply , as I noticed a causal claim, which is not mentioned in the answer choices of some Experts.

claim: highly comparative --> makes extreme effort seem not worthwhile in a large (500-person) race.

a) ???Desire matters, not comparison --> weakens claim
b) ???Least vs. most comparative = same effort --> weakens claim
c) Comparative people run the same speed in both races --> contradicts the claim
d) Strengthens. Adds the missing link: mindset --> perception --> effort --> outcome.
e) Background on volunteer selection

Can this higher order ( thinking in patterns ) backfire on test day ? thanks in advance

inciduntprovident · Answer

I am totally confused. Can "inclined" be used to describe someone as a character? Is it right to say: "you are inclined." or " I am the most inclined."? it should be" volunteers who were the most comparatively inclined 'to get the 1000 dollar price'......" why will there be a grammer mistake in such an official question?

GMATNinja · Answer

The explanation posed in the passage is that the most comparatively inclined volunteers determined that extreme effort would not be worthwhile in the 500-competitor race. So yes, this does suggest an element of cause and effect: BEING comparatively-inclined is what caused (or perhaps allowed) those volunteers to make that determination.

But do we need to assume that the belief described in (D) was CAUSED by being comparatively inclined? Not necessarily. As long as there's a correlation between being comparatively inclined and having that belief, the logic holds up:

The most comparatively inclined volunteers believed that they were significantly less likely to finish in the top 10 percent in the race against 500 than in the race against 50.
 
 That means that the most comparatively inclined volunteers believed that they were significantly less likely  to win $1,000  in the race against 500 than in the race against 50.
 
 That explains why those volunteers determined that extreme effort would not be worthwhile in the 500-competitor race.

Sometimes it's critical to think about cause and effect. But if the cause and effect relationship cannot be determined, you don't want to assume that it's there.

Hopefully that answers your question!

GMATNinja · Answer

A person can be inclined  to do something : "I'm inclined to believe that you are a hard worker." An object can be inclined, too: "Let's push a large boulder up this inclined plane."

But, no, it doesn't really make sense to described someone as "inclined" without any other context, unless you're writing some really odd poetry or song lyrics.

The usage of "inclined" in the passage is a bit different. The usage here is similar to to describing someone as "musically inclined", which means that he/she has a musical inclination, tendency, or talent. This is called a compound adjective because it's formed by two words. In fact, you'll sometimes see a hyphen used with this sort of thing (musically-inclined, artistically-inclined, etc.).

Similarly, "comparatively-inclined" people are people who tend to compare themselves with others, as explained by the part in between the dashes in the passage.

I hope that helps!

arushi118 · Answer

I thought of the whole question a little bit differently. I thought that maybe the volunteers who are the most comparitively inclined don't put an extreme effort in the 500people race as they are confident that they will get the prize (of $1000) even if they run a bit slower - Because in the 50 people race they have to come in the first 5 people, but in the 500 people race they have to come in the first 50 peoplel - so they can maybe run a little more relaxed and still get the price.
By this reasoning I marked A. Can you please help with where am I going wrong?
 KarishmaB

KarishmaB · Answer

Even if you do reason it out that way, how does option (A) help? It gives us no distinction between 50 m and 500 m races. It just tells us another characteristic of our group of interest - the comparatively inclined. But this characteristic does not distinguish between the 50 people and 500 people races.

Researchers asked volunteers to imagine they were running a five-kilom

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Researchers asked volunteers to imagine they were running a five-kilom

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