Self-study
Psychologists have found that candidates for top political offices who blink excessively during televised debates are judged by viewers to have done less well than competing candidates who exhibit average blink rates. ███ ██████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████████████ ████ █████████████████████████████ ███████████ ███ ██ ██████████████████ ██ █ █████████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ █ ████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that any impact from viewers’ perception that political candidates who blink excessively during a debate perform less well than those who blink an average amount is harmful. This is because a candidate’s rate of blinking is not a feature that contributes to performing well in elected office.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that blink rate is not a signal of features that are relevant to performing well in office, such as confidence.
11.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
Voters' judgments about ███████████ ██████ ████████████ ██████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████████
The argument never specifies that it’s concerned only with national elections. Effects on state elections or local elections can still be harmful. Also, the conclusion doesn’t assert that there are any effects on elections. Only that if there are effects, they’re harmful.
Fighting the hypothetical
Fighting the hypothetical
Answers that aren't relevant because they ignore a hypothetical condition that we're supposed to treat as true. (e.g., the conclusion says "If John is hungry, he'll order pizza" and an answer says, "John isn't hungry")
b
Blinking too infrequently ██████ █████████ ███████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████████ ████████████
This simply describes another way that blink rate can affect someone’s perception of a candidate. This doesn’t undermine the author’s position that perceptions based on blink rate are harmful.
c
Excessive blinking has ████ █████ ██ ██ █ ██████ ████████ █████████ ██ █ ████ ██ ███████████
This suggests that excessive blink rate can be a signal of confidence, which is a feature that contributes to performance in elected office. So, judging a candidate based on excessive blinking might not be harmful, because it’s an indicator of something we were told is relevant.
d
Candidates for top █████████ ███████ ███ ███ █████████████ ████ ████ ██ ██ ██████████
This doesn’t tell us anything about blink rate or why judging candidates based on blink rate might not be harmful.
e
Viewers' judgments about ███████████ ██████ ████████████ ███ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████████████ ███ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███
This doesn’t tell us anything about blink rate or why judging candidates based on blink rate might not be harmful.