Self-study
The local fair held its annual photography contest and accepted entries from both amateurs and professionals. ███ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ██ ██ ██████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ██ █████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why did amateurs win most of the prizes when the contest was open to professional photographers?
Objective
The correct answer will be an unsatisfactory hypothesis, because it will fail to explain why amateurs won most of the prizes. Every wrong answer, meanwhile, will identify a difference between amateur and professional entrants that implies amateur photographers had an advantage.
3.
Each of the following, if █████ █████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████ ███████
a
Many more of ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████████████
This would explain why amateurs won a majority of the prizes. If more photographs were entered by amateurs, amateurs as a collective had more chances to win prizes than professionals did.
b
The judges in ███ ███████ ████ █████████ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███████████ █████ ██ █████ █████████
This would explain the amateurs’ success. If the judges had a preference for amateur photographs, they would be more likely to award prizes to amateur entrants than to professional entrants.
c
Amateurs tend to █████ █████ ████ ███████████ █████ █████████████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ████████
This would explain why amateurs won more prizes than professionals. If amateurs submitted their best work and professionals did not, the quality of amateur photographs entered may have exceeded the quality of the professional photographs entered.
d
Each category in ███ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ █████████████ █████ ███ █████ ████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████████
This would explain why amateurs won a majority of the prizes. If most of the prizes were open only to amateurs, then amateurs were bound to win a majority of them.
e
Three times as ████ ████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ █████
This provides no information about the number of amateur entrants relative to the number of professional entrants. It is still possible more professionals entered the contest than amateurs, in which case the outcome remains unexplained.