Self-study
Critics worry that pessimistic news reports about the economy harm it by causing people to lose confidence in the economy, of which everyone has direct experience every day. ███████████ ███████ ████ ██ ██ █████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ █████ █████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ █████ █████ ███████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ███████████
Summary
Although critics worry that pessimistic news reports about the economy cause people to lose confidence in the economy, studies show that, on matters on which people have direct experience, they don’t defer to journalists. People have direct experience with the economy.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
People don’t defer to journalists regarding the economy.
Critics don’t need to be worried that pessimistic news reports will influence people’s feelings about the economy.
17.
The statements above, if true, ████ ████████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
Critics who think ████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██ ██ ███ ██████
Unsupported. The issue is whether news about the economy affects people’s perceptions. We don’t know anything about whether people’s perceptions affect the economy.
b
Pessimistic news reports █████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ██████████ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ █ ████████ ███████
Unsupported. Although it’s possible people defer to journalists on foreign policy, there’s no support for characterizing the effect of that deference as negative. Being influenced by news reports is not inherently negative.
c
Pessimistic news reports █████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ████████
Unsupported. We know people don’t defer to journalists on the economy. So, there’s no evidence news reports will harm the economy by making people lose confidence in it. In theory the news could hurt the economy through some other means, but the stimulus doesn’t speak to that.
d
News reports about ███ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ █ ███████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████████
Strongly supported. We know that on matters on which they have direct experience, people don’t defer to journalists. And we’re told people have direct experience with the economy. So, they don’t defer to journalists on the economy.
e
Journalists need not ██ ██████ █████████ █████ █████ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████
Unsupported. The stimulus indicates people are unlikely to defer to journalists on the economy. But journalists might have an impact on people regarding other topics. We have no basis to say journalists shouldn’t be concerned about potential effects regarding other topics.