In a survey of consumers in an Eastern European nation, respondents we

Question

In a survey of consumers in an Eastern European nation, respondents were asked two questions about each of 400 famous Western brands: whether or not they recognized the brand name and whether or not they thought the products bearing that name were of high quality. The results of the survey were a rating and corresponding rank order for each brand based on recognition, and a second rating-plus-ranking based on approval. The brands ranked in the top 27 for recognition were those actually available in that nation. The approval rankings of these 27 brands often differed sharply from their recognition rankings. By contrast, most of the other brands had ratings, and thus rankings, that were essentially the same for recognition as for approval.

Which one of the following, if each is a principle about consumer surveys, is violated by the survey described?

(A) Never ask all respondents a question if it cannot reasonably be answered by respondents who make a particular response to another question in the same survey.

(B) Never ask a question that is likely to generate a large variety of responses that are difficult to group into a manageable number of categories.

(C) Never ask all respondents a question that respondents cannot answer without giving up their anonymity.

(D) It is better to ask the same question about ten different products than to ask ten different questions about a single product.

(E) It is best to ask questions that a respondent can answer without fear of having gotten the answer wrong.

GMATNinja · Accepted Answer

The passage describes a survey conducted in a particular Eastern European nation. The survey asked consumers two questions about 400 famous Western brands:
  Whether they recognize the brand, 
 And whether they though the products of that brand were of high quality.

The results of the survey were split into two groups:
  For the 27 most-recognized brands (those available in the nation), the brand-recognition differed sharply from the quality ranking 
 For the remainder of the brands, the brand-recognition and quality ranking were essentially the same.

The answer choices provide principles about consumer surveys, and the question asks which of those principles is violated by the survey described in the passage. With that in mind, let’s consider the answer choices.

(A) is interesting. It indicates that we should not ask respondents a question that we cannot expect them to answer based on another question in the same survey. Let’s think about this in the context of the survey described by the passage. If respondents do not recognize a brand name, can we reasonably expect them to know whether products bearing that name are of high-quality? Of course not. How could consumers know whether products are high-quality if they don’t recognize the products that they are evaluating? We cannot reasonably expect consumers to do that, so the survey seems to violate the principle described. Let’s keep (A).

The survey described by the passage asks two yes/no questions. A simple yes/no question will not generate a large variety of responses. Therefore, the answers will not be difficult to group into manageable categories, and we can eliminate (B).

The two questions asked in the survey do not require that the respondents provide any sort of personal information that would forfeit their anonymity. Eliminate (C).

(D) seems to imply that it is better to ask a single question about many products than to ask many questions about a single product. The survey asks a single question about many products (whether consumers think that the  products  of a particular brand are high-quality). So, the survey conforms to (D), and we can eliminate it.

The questions detailed in the survey do not have an objectively right or wrong answer. Certainly, consumers will know whether they recognize a brand name, and they will know whether they believe the products bearing that name are of high-quality. So, they do not have reason to fear getting the answer wrong. Eliminate (E).

(A) is the only answer choice remaining, and it is correct.

I hope that helps!

srikalivarapu · Answer

people are responding and giving responses and approval ratings about products and brands they are NOT even aware off.
this is will ruin the basic tenet of survey that will question the good data that is taken.

Sajal089 · Answer

can someone please explain the answer choice?

egmat · Answer

Passage Analysis: 
In a survey of consumers in an Eastern European nation, respondents were asked two questions about each of 400 famous Western brands:
  A consumer survey was conducted in an East European country.
It consisted of 2 questions to each respondent about each of 400 famous western brands.  
 whether or not they recognized the brand name and whether or not they thought the products bearing that name were of high quality.
  The two questions were:
1. Can they recognize the brand name?
2.Do they think that brand of products were of high quality?   
 The results of the survey were a rating and corresponding rank order for each brand based on recognition, and a second rating-plus-ranking based on approval.
  The survey results were prepared as two sets of brand rankings and ratings- one based on recognition and one based on approval.  
 The brands ranked in the top 27 for recognition were those actually available in that nation. 
  The top 27 brands of the recognition ranking were available in that nation.  
 The approval rankings of these 27 brands often differed sharply from their recognition rankings. 
  But recognition rankings and approval rankings for these brands were in many cases sharply different.  
By contrast, most of the other brands had ratings, and thus rankings, that were essentially the same for recognition as for approval.
  But other brands had similar rankings in both indices due to similar ratings .

Question Stem: 
Which one of the following, if each is a principle about consumer surveys, is violated by the survey described?
 We need to make an inference about which of these principles is violated. So we can first understand what each principle means and verify whether they are followed in the survey as per the given details

Option Analysis

(A) Never ask all respondents a question if it cannot reasonably be answered by respondents who make a particular response to another question in the same survey.
 CORRECT - This principle states that if a respondent made one response to a question , and that response means that they cannot reasonably answer another question, then do not ask them the latter question.
As per the passage, the quality rating question is asked to all respondents, even if they say they don't recognize the brand. If the respondent conveys that they do not know the brand, that means they cannot give a reasonable response for quality rating. Hence we can see that this principle is violated. 
 
(B) Never ask a question that is likely to generate a large variety of responses that are difficult to group into a manageable number of categories.
 INCORRECT - The survey asks only 2 questions and the responses can be neatly categorized to give 2 sets of rankings and ratings. Hence this principle is not violated.

(C) Never ask all respondents a question that respondents cannot answer without giving up their anonymity.
 INCORRECT - The questions asked do not risk the respondents anonymity. Hence this principle is also not violated.

(D) It is better to ask the same question about ten different products than to ask ten different questions about a single product.
 INCORRECT - The survey asks only two questions about 400 different brands and not 400 (or a large number of) questions about one or two brands. Hence this principle is also not violated.

(E) It is best to ask questions that a respondent can answer without fear of having gotten the answer wrong.
 INCORRECT - Subjective rankings and ratings cannot be wrong. Hence this principle is also not violated.

Xolmuhammad · Answer

Gmat Ninja and other experts , please help for this question

VerbalBot · Answer

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In a survey of consumers in an Eastern European nation, respondents we

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In a survey of consumers in an Eastern European nation, respondents we

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