The honest truth about dishonesty
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- The honest truth about dishonesty
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The honest truth about dishonesty
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[post_date] => 2025-01-01 11:46:02
[post_date_gmt] => 2025-01-01 16:46:02
[post_content] => Practice Passage (Question 1-4)
*This passage is the property of Khan Academy and has been reformatted into an AAMC-style interface in their entirety by MedLife Mastery. MedLife Mastery does not endorse and is not an affiliate of Khan Academy.
Although business people deserve more respect for their honesty than they receive, a common complaint is that they take advantage of consumers through dishonest advertising. Instead of providing useful information for making rational choices, advertisements often appeal to consumers’ emotions to persuade them to buy products regardless of need. This complaint is true and obvious to all but the most naïve people. Advertisements are designed to convince consumers to favor one product over others, and presenting solely unbiased and unemotional information would seldom be the best way to accomplish this goal.
Thoughtful people recognize that politicians advertise themselves and their policy recommendations in similarly biased and emotional ways. The question is not whether businesspeople or politicians have the strongest moral commitment to truthfulness in advertising. Both groups will deviate from honest practices when they expect that the benefits of doing so will exceed the costs. The important question is “Who can most easily mislead their customers with emotional statements, unrealistic promises, and biased information: businesspeople or politicians?”
People are less likely to be swayed by dishonesty and emotion when responding to business ads than when responding to political ads for two reasons. First, businesspeople are attempting to persuade people who are usually spending their own money; politicians are trying to persuade people who are deciding how they want to spend other people’s money. The motivation to minimize mistakes by carefully considering claims about costs and benefits before a decision is made and by evaluating those claims in light of post-decision experience is greater when one is bearing all of the cost of the decision than when others are bearing most of the cost.
The second reason why misleading claims are less effective in promoting commercial products than in promoting political products is because the choices that consumers of commercial products make have more decisive effects on outcomes than do the choices of consumers of political products. When people purchase a product in the marketplace, they get the product they choose, and they get it because they chose it. The probability that a voter’s choice will be decisive is increasingly small in state and federal elections, and seldom greater than a fraction of one percent in most local elections. Given such a low probability of any one person’s vote determining the outcome of the election, voters have little motivation to be concerned about the accuracy of the political claims being made.
One might think that professors would be more honest than both businesspeople and politicians when promoting their products’ value (that is, in their teaching and research). Unlike politicians, professors try to sell their products to customers who can decisively accept or reject them without being directly affected by how many others make different choices. However, many undergraduate students are glaringly indifferent to what professors have to say, so professors have more latitude than businesspeople to benefit from exaggerated and duplicitous claims.
Professors have to be more restrained when publishing than when teaching because other professors will evaluate the truth of their published claims. It is true that academic promotions may be earned and scholarly reputations enhanced by exposing the errors in published work. However, professors are often less concerned with the truthfulness of articles written by other professors than one might think. Professors anxious to get their own articles and books published are often less interested in whether the publications they cite are correct than in whether the publications are accepted as correct by academics with views similar to their own—the people most likely to decide whether their books and articles will be published and cited.
Adapted from D. Lee, “Why Businessmen Are More Honest than Preachers, Politicians, and Professors.” ©2010 The Independent Review.
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[question] => Which of the following assumptions is most central to the author’s argument?
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[answer] => 4
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
This is a “Reasoning Within the Text” question, which means that it wants you to explore the key assumption(s), claim(s), or theme that is being expressed in a passage. You will have to evaluate the soundness of an argument, the reasonableness of its conclusions, and/or the appropriateness of its generalizations. It is crucial to carefully examine the strengths and weaknesses of the key ideas based on the information given.
In the second sentence the author writes “Instead of providing useful information for making rational choices, advertisements often appeal to consumers’ emotions to persuade them to buy products regardless of need.” Although the author suggests that advertisements appeal to consumers’ emotions, the passage does not discuss products being designed to appeal to emotions (option A). The passage does not draw any conclusions based on whether products are more likely to be purchased when they are advertised over when they are not advertised (option B). The author writes that the complaint of being convinced to buy things that are not needed is “true and obvious to all but the most naïve people” (paragraph 1). Although this implies that some products may not be needed, the author does not suggest that most products are not needed (option C). The author writes that “Advertisements are designed to convince consumers to favor one product over others, and presenting solely unbiased and unemotional information would seldom be the best way to accomplish this goal” (paragraph 1). If the goal of advertising creates a bias for one product over another, then this sentence suggests that in the absence of advertising people would rely on objective information which would not result in any preference, which is consistent with option D.
Thus, option D is correct.
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[answers] => Array
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[0] => Array
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[each_answer] => A. Most products are designed to appeal to naïve and emotional consumers.
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[1] => Array
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[each_answer] => B. Products are more likely to be purchased when they are advertised than when they are not.
)
[2] => Array
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[each_answer] => C. If businesspeople manufactured only products that people need, there would be few products on the market.
)
[3] => Array
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[each_answer] => D. If products were evaluated according to objective information about them, people would often not prefer one over the other.
)
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[1] => Array
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[quiz_unique_key] => 3873426850
[question] => The author implies which of the following is about businesspeople and politicians?
[value] => Array
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[answer] => 2
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
This is a “Foundations of Comprehension” question, which means that it wants you to be able to figure out what specific words or phrases mean within that context. Questions may require you to infer meanings that can’t be determined from a superficial reading of the text, such as meanings that the author has implied but did not state directly.
In the second paragraph, the author states “Thoughtful people recognize that politicians advertise themselves and their policy recommendations in similarly biased and emotional ways.” The passage does not imply that either business people or politicians are not thoughtful (option A), On the contrary, their choices seem to be quite deliberate and thoughtful. In the second paragraph, the author also says “The question is not whether businesspeople or politicians have the strongest moral commitment to truthfulness in advertising. Both groups will deviate from honest practices when they expect that the benefits of doing so will exceed the costs.” Which implies that although he does not take a position on which group has less commitment to truthfulness, that both groups deviate from honest practices. This implies that both groups do not have a strong moral commitment to truthfulness (option B). The passage does not discuss whether businesspeople or politicians are biased in their views of their customers or constituents. The author’s main point concerning bias is that the messages produced by businesspeople and politicians are biased (option C). Finally, while politicians may be more likely to advertise themselves, the passage describes businesspeople as generally trying to advertise their products. This is a point of difference rather than similarity between the two groups (option D).
Thus, option B is correct.
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[0] => Array
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[each_answer] => A. Neither are very thoughtful people.
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[each_answer] => B. either have a strong moral commitment to truthfulness.
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[each_answer] => C. Both have biased views about their customers and constituents, respectively.
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[each_answer] => D. Both are more concerned about advertising themselves than their products, respectively.
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[2] => Array
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[quiz_unique_key] => 83407773
[question] => Suppose a politician is re-elected despite lying about his voting record. The passage suggests which of the following explanations?
[value] => Array
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[answer] => 3
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
This is a “Reasoning Beyond the Text” question, which means that it wants you to either apply or extrapolate the ideas in the passage to new situations or to assess how new information would impact the ideas presented in the passage. It is important to understand the assumptions underlying the article, and how new information may or may not shift the central thesis.
The author states that, “The motivation to minimize mistakes by carefully considering claims about costs and benefits before a decision is made and by evaluating those claims in light of post-decision experience is greater when one is bearing all of the cost of the decision than when others are bearing most of the cost” (paragraph 3). This is one reason that individuals are more willing to carefully evaluate the claims of a business person over the claims of a politician. A second reason, given in paragraph 4 is “Given such a low probability of any one person’s vote determining the outcome of the election, voters have little motivation to be concerned about the accuracy of the political claims being made.” If a politician is able to get re-elected even though he/she lied about their voting record, then the passage suggests that the likely reason is that voters were not motivated to evaluate campaign claims in light of observed political behavior during the first term in office. The passage doesn’t suggest that the presence of contradictory statements as a reason why people are less likely to be swayed by dishonesty and emotion when responding to business ads than when responding to political ads. (option A). It is possible that a new cohort of voters elected the politician in the second term, however this alternative is not discussed by the passage (option B). The notion of costs and benefits that is mentioned in the passage refers to the costs and benefits of engaging in a careful evaluation process. The lack of consensus in cost and benefits analyses is not discussed as a reason why misleading claims are less effective in promoting commercial products than in promoting political products (option D).
Thus, option C is correct.
)
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[0] => Array
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[each_answer] => A. The politician made many contradictory statements during his or her campaign.
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[each_answer] => B. Voter demographics for the second election were significantly different than for the first.
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[each_answer] => C. Voters did not compare the politician’s behavior while in office with statements made during his or her campaign.
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[each_answer] => D. There was no consensus among voters regarding the costs and benefits of a second term in office for that politician.
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[quiz_unique_key] => 4240073053
[question] => The author most likely mentions probability in his discussion of voting behavior as reasoning for which of the following (paragraph 4)?
I. To explain low voter turnout in state and federal elections
II. To explain the prevalence of politicians’ dishonesty
III. To explain why voters do not carefully consider political claims
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[answer] => 2
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
This is a “Reasoning Within the Text” question, which means that it wants you to explore the key idea, claim, or theme that is being expressed in a passage. You will have to evaluate the soundness of an argument, the reasonableness of its conclusions, and/or the appropriateness of its generalizations. It is crucial to carefully examine the strengths and weaknesses of the key ideas based on the information given.
The author writes that, “The probability that a voter’s choice will be decisive is increasingly small in state and federal elections, and seldom greater than a fraction of one percent in most local elections. Given such a low probability of any one person’s vote determining the outcome of the election, voters have little motivation to be concerned about the accuracy of the political claims being made” (paragraph 4). The individual voter has a very small impact on the overall number of votes and therefore each voter has only a small stake in the overall decision. The distributed sense of ownership is used to explain why voters do not carefully consider political claims, which is consistent with Statement III. The reference to probability appears as part of the fourth paragraph, and the author states in the first sentence of that paragraph that he is attempting to explain “why misleading claims are less effective in promoting commercial products than in promoting political products.” The author is not trying to explain low voter turnout. This is contrary to statement I. Although it is implied that politicians are dishonest in the sentence “Both groups will deviate from honest practices when they expect that the benefits of doing so will exceed the costs”, the author is not attempting to explain the prevalence of politicians’ dishonesty by discussing the probability. The first sentence in paragraph 4 sets up that the main behavior that the author is trying to explain is “why misleading claims are less effective in promoting commercial products than in promoting political products.” which is about voter reaction to the claims, not about the dishonesty of politicians (statement II).
Thus, statement III is the only correct one, corresponding to option B.
)
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[each_answer] => A. II only
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[each_answer] => B. III only
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[each_answer] => C. I and II only
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[each_answer] => D. I and III only
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[559745|1] => D
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[559745|3] => C
[559745|4] => B
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