Self-study
Provinces and states with stringent car safety requirements, including required use of seat belts and annual safety inspections, have on average higher rates of accidents per kilometer driven than do provinces and states with less stringent requirements. █████████████ ████ ███████ ██████ ███████ █████ ████ ████ █████████ ████████████ ██ ██████ ████████ ██████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Jurisdictions with more stringent car safety regulations have relatively more accidents than jurisdictions without such regulations. Yet experts still agree these regulations reduce accidents.
Objective
The correct answer will be a hypothesis that explains how jurisdictions with stringent regulations have higher average accident rates, despite stringent regulations reducing accidents. We’re likely looking for an answer that tells us jurisdictions with stringent regulations would have even more accidents without such regulations.
24.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ████████ █████████ ██████
a
Annual safety inspections ██████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ████████ ██████ ████ ████ ████
This tells us how a particular safety measure works, but doesn’t explain why jurisdictions with stringent regulations have higher accident rates, or why experts think these regulations are nevertheless effective.
b
Drivers often become █████████████ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██████ █ ████████ ██████ ███████████
This would partially explain why jurisdictions with stringent regulations have higher accident rates, but not why experts believe these regulations are still effective.
c
The roads in █████████ ███ ██████ ████ █████████ ███ ██████ ████████████ ███ ███ ████ █████████ ███ █████████ █████████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ███████
This explains why jurisdictions with stringent regulations have higher accident rates—the roads are a disaster. The regulations, however, may still be effectively mitigating some of that danger. So, this reconciles the experts' belief with the evidence.
d
Psychological studies show ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ █████ █████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████████ █████ ███ █ ███ ██████ ███████████ ████████ ████████
This partially explains how stringent safety regulations might reduce accident rates. However it doesn't help us explain why jurisdictions with stringent regulations are still more dangerous.
e
Provinces and states ████ █████████ ███ ██████ ████████████ █████ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ███ ███████
The stimulus is only talking about accidents per kilometer, so the total number of kilometers involved is irrelevant to us.