Self-study
In a study, shoppers who shopped in a grocery store without a shopping list and bought only items that were on sale for half price or less spent far more money on a comparable number of items than did shoppers in the same store who used a list and bought no sale items.
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Despite only buying items at a 50%+ discount, grocery shoppers without lists spent much more money than shoppers with lists, who bought a similar number of items, but didn't buy anything discounted.
Objective
The right answer will be a hypothesis that explains why the shoppers without lists spent so much more than the shoppers with lists, despite only buying discounted items. Because the shoppers all bought about the same number of items, the explanation will likely address the average price of items.
16.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████
a
Only the shoppers ███ ████ █ ████ ████ █ ████████ █████
This tries to imply that shoppers with lists bought more items, which would if anything deepen our confusion. Also, we already know that the groups bought about the same number of items. This doesn’t help.
b
The shoppers who ███ ███ ███ █████ ██████ ████ ███████████ ██████
Even if they bought unnecessary items, we know that they bought about as many items overall as the shoppers with lists. Are unnecessary items more expensive? We don't know, so this doesn't help.
c
Usually, only the ████ █████████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ███████
Those 50% off items were air fryers and high-quality steaks. Sure, the shoppers without lists were getting discounts. But they were splurging on expensive items, hence why they spent more than the shoppers with lists. This explains the paradox.
d
The grocery store ██ ███ █████ ███████ ████ █████████ █████ ████ ███ █████ ███████ ██████ ██████
So there were expensive items available, but we don’t know if any of those expensive items were purchased by either group of shoppers. This doesn't help us at all.
e
The grocery store ██ ███ █████ ██████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ █████
So the shoppers without lists had a more limited selection, but without knowing whether the items in that selection were more expensive, this doesn't help.