LSAT 148 – Section 4 – Question 03

LSAT 148 - Section 4 - Question 03

December 2016

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT148 S4 Q03
+LR
Resolve reconcile or explain +RRE
A
2%
155
B
0%
144
C
2%
155
D
92%
163
E
3%
155
134
142
149
 +Medium 147.694 +SubsectionMedium

Psychologist: In our study, participants who were offered the opportunity to purchase a coffee mug were not willing to pay more than $5. If, however, they were given a very similar mug and asked immediately afterwards how much they would be willing to sell it for, most of them held out for more than $5.

"Surprising" Phenomenon

Why were most study participants unwilling to sell a coffee mug unless they received more than the maximum amount they would have spent to purchase it?

Objective

The right answer will explain a difference between the mugs, the study participants’ states of mind, or the set of circumstances that existed when the participants were in the position of mug buyer vs. mug seller. That difference must result in the participants believing that they either could or should receive more money for the mug than they were willing to spend to purchase it.

A
A person’s assessment of the value of an object depends on his or her evaluation of the inherent properties of the object.

This doesn’t explain why the participants’ assessments of the mug’s value changed when they became the seller—the inherent properties of the object didn’t change, so why would the participants’ value assessments be different?

B
People are usually unable to judge the value of an object when they have possessed it for a long period of time.

This would help if the participants had owned the mug for a long time after they were in the position of buyer and before they were in the position of seller, but the stimulus tells us they were asked about the mug’s price “immediately” after they were given the mug.

C
The amount a person is willing to spend on an object is determined by the amount that object sold for in the past.

This doesn’t help. Even if the participants’ willingnesses to purchase the mug for no more than $5 were based on their knowledge of a previous price, it doesn’t explain why they wouldn’t sell the mug for $5.

D
People tend to value an object that they do not own less than they value a very similar object that they already own.

This describes a key difference between the study participants’ states of mind as mug buyer vs. seller: in the position of seller, they owned the mug, and therefore valued it more highly than before. As a result, they wanted to sell it for more money.

E
People are more likely to undervalue objects they have been given than objects they have purchased.

We want to explain why the participants’ assessments of the mug’s value went up when it was given to them. Instead, this answer indicates that we might expect the opposite. This answer choice also compares given vs. purchased objects, but the stimulus describes desired vs. owned.

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LSAT PrepTest 148 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Reading Comprehension

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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