Self-study
Researcher: People are able to tell whether a person is extroverted just by looking at pictures in which the person has a neutral expression. █████ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████ ███████ █ ██████████ ███████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ █ ███████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██████████████ █████ ███ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████ ██████ ███████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The researcher hypothesizes that it’s because of primate biology—not just culture—that humans can tell whether a person is extroverted by looking at a picture of their neutral expression. Why? Because people can identify dominant chimpanzees by looking at similar pictures, and humans and chimpanzees are both primates.
Notable Assumptions
The researcher assumes only primate biology can explain this ability in humans, and not something else besides culture. She assumes abilities acquired through culture are not enough to allow humans to identify dominant chimpanzees through pictures of their neutral expressions. She also assumes humans have the ability to identify extroverted humans for the same reason they can identify dominant chimpanzees.
14.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ ████████████ █████████
a
People are generally ██████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ █████
If anything, this weakens the researcher’s argument. It implies the ability to identify dominant individuals through pictures doesn’t extend to all primates—which suggests something other than primate biology is at play.
Directionally wrong
Directionally wrong
Answers that, if they have any effect, do the opposite of what we want (weaken when we're trying to strengthen, or strengthen when we're trying to weaken).
b
People are able ██ ████████ █ █████ █████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ████████████
This is irrelevant. The researcher concludes primate biology allows humans to identify other extroverted humans—she makes no claim about other personality traits.
c
Extroversion in people ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ █ ███████ ██████████████ ██ ██████████████
This strengthens the researcher’s assumption that people are able to identify extroverted humans and dominant chimpanzees for the same reason. It implies humans in both cases are identifying genetically assertive individuals.
Causal mechanism
Causal mechanism
Answers that undermine, or help establish, the practical story of how an alleged cause could produce the alleged effect.
d
Any common ancestor ██ ██████ ███ ███████████ █████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ████ █ ███████ █████ ████
This is irrelevant. It doesn’t change the fact that humans and chimpanzees are both primates, and the researcher credits primate biology—not a recent-ancestor relationship—for humans’ ability to identify extroverts.
e
Some of the ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███████
If anything, this weakens the argument. It raises the possibility that humans aren’t actually that good at identifying extroverts among pictures of real people.