#23 - Main Point

[emilysnoddon]

Hello,

For this question I was choosing between answer choices A and B and the presence of "predisposition" through me off with answer B so I choice A. Could you please elaborate why B is the correct answer.

Thank you,

Emily

[Adam Tyson]

Thanks for the question, Emily. Since the goal throughout this test is to always pick the best answer (which may not be perfect, and may not even be good), rejecting answers as losers is just as important, and maybe more important, than deciding on the correct answer in a given situation. For that reason, let's start by talking about why A is wrong.

Main Point questions in RC need to be comprehensive - they need to cover the whole scope of what the passage was all about - and they need to limit themselves to that scope and go no further. Narrow answers, answers that only address a portion of the passage or a minor point, should therefore be rejected as losers. So should answers that are too broad, that overstate what the passage had to offer.

Answer A fails for both of those reasons - it deals with an issue that was a minor point of the passage, and it was too broad. The minor point is that people do not always make decisions that are based on purely rational economic self-interest. While true, that statement hardly conveys the bigger issues in the passage, that evolutionary processes apparently led to these irrational decisions in limited situations. It's also too broad, because it overstates the claim about not being rational. It puts it in absolute terms - people DON'T act rationally - instead of limiting the scope the way the passage did, to people don't ALWAYS act rationally.

For these reasons, A has to go - it's a loser. You apparently decided, correctly, that C, D and E were also losers, which should have left you with only answer B still standing. While you weren't in love with the term "predisposition", you didn't reject it because that word was wrong, but because you weren't certain about it, right? Maybe you didn't like it because it wasn't a predisposition until millions of years of shaping had taken place? But uncertainty, even a touch of dislike, is not enough to make an answer a loser. The problem should be something you can articulate, a flaw that you can describe clearly, before you reject it. At this point, with one answer standing and no solid argument against it, you should pick it and move on. That's the whole essence of the losers/contenders approach - don't get hung up on analyzing an answer too much or looking for one that's perfect or even good. Just reject the four worst answers and pick the one that's better than those.

That said, answer B is actually a really good answer. The idea of "predisposition" is well supported by the claim in the passage that "we instinctively feel the need to reject dismal offers". Instinct and predisposition are close enough for the LSAT! They are probably close enough for almost any other situation, too.

Think on that losers/contenders approach some and see if it doesn't make sense. If I have totally missed the boat about why you rejected B and picked A, let me know and I'll try again!

[emilysnoddon]

That all makes sense! Thank you for your help.

[emilyrk]

Hi, what kind of passage is this?

[Paul Marsh]

Hi Emily! This passage is classified as a "Humanities" passage - meaning it deals with a topic in a field like art, philosophy, economics (as this passage does), etc.

Typically Reading Comprehension sections will have at least one of each of the following: a Science passage, a Law passage, and a Humanities passage. And then the fourth passage may also be one of those types, or it may be something else entirely.

Hope that helps! If you have any specific questions about this problem, please feel free to follow up below.

[ikim10]

I rejected (B) because it stated that "the reactions most commonly displayed by participants...appear to conflict with self-interest." However, the passage tells us that the actions that appear to conflict with self-interest are those when the responder rejects any offer that is greater than 0%.

We know that some (at least one) proposer offers 50%. We know that 2/3 of proposers offer between 40-50%. And we know that 4% of proposers offer less than 20%, of which most (over 50%) are rejected by the responder.

We are not told what proportion of each type of offer is accepted by the responder, except in the case of the less than 20% which accounts for only 4% of all offers. How can we state, then, that rejection of an offer is the most commonly displayed reaction among participants?

[Adam Tyson]

These are good points, ikim10, but I'll refer you back to my earlier post in this thread about picking the best answer, even if it is in some way imperfect. No other answer choice comes even close to being as good as answer B, does it? We know that most of the offers are less than 50%, and based on what else the author told us, it isn't too far a leap to say that a lot of those low offers are being rejected. Is it possible that most of the time those offers that are over 20% and less than 50% are accepted? Maybe, so you're correct about us lacking absolute certainty on that point.

Then again, the "reactions" discussed in the passage are more than just the decision to accept or reject the offer. They also include the emotional responses we feel when we get a low offer, and the passage said that "we respond emotionally to low offers in the Ultimatum Game because we instinctively feel the need to reject dismal offers in order to keep our self-esteem." That sure sounds like we are always, or almost always, having that emotional response, even when we ultimately accept the low offer. We take it, but we aren't happy about it. And the low offers, below 50%, are happening most of the time.

In the end, I think answer B is a really good answer, but even if you don't, you have to admit that the others are all worse. Since we're supposed to pick the best answer, that should be enough to convince you that B is the credited response and should be selected.