PT1.S3.Q20 - Most people in the United States view neither

polololo

Can anyone explain the stimulus and why (E) is the answer for this question? I just don't get this one.

Vibrio

The first part of the stimulus is basically saying that most people in the US regard both big and small business as being similar in terms of efficiency, dynamics, and provision of fairly priced goods & services.
But yet, most people consistently perceive small business as socially responsible while big business is perceived as socially responsible only in times of prosperity.
This implies that social responsibility is not just about efficiency/dynamics/fair price. If it was, they would perceive both as similarly responsible, given the facts.
Answer choice E is saying that many people think social responsibility goes beyond fair price of goods & services, which is supported by the stimulus.

A: we don't know if most people give little thought to the value of business to society.
B, C, D : Notice how all three are hypotheticals. For most strongly supported questions, it's really hard to support conditional statements if the stimulus does not actually contain a conditional statement.
What would have happened if people regarded big or small business as more efficient? We don't know! All we know from the stimulus is they view them to have similar efficiency.