Self-study
People always seem to associate high prices of products with high quality. ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ █████████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████ █████████ ████ ███ █████████████ █████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why are high-quality teas not more expensive than low-quality teas, even though they differ in quality?
Objective
The right answer will be a hypothesis that explains a difference between high-quality teas and low-quality teas. This difference will account for why both types of tea are priced similarly, even though one might expect high-quality teas to cost more.
8.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ██████████████ █████████ ██████
a
Packaging and advertising ██████ ███ █████ ██ ███ █████
This would have a uniform effect on all teas, regardless of quality. The right answer will offer a difference between high- and low- quality teas.
b
Most people buy ███████████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ███
This explains the phenomenon by introducing an additional factor that affects price: demand. Since most people buy low-quality tea rather than high-quality tea, the increased demand drives the price of lower-quality tea up to the level of high-quality tea.
c
All types of ███ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ██████ ████████
This would have a uniform effect on all teas, regardless of quality. The right answer will offer a difference between high- and low- quality teas.
d
Low-quality teas are █████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ ████████████ █████
The relative accessibility of low-quality teas does not explain why they are priced similarly to high-quality teas. One might even expect that the easier availability of low-quality teas would make them cheaper than high-quality teas.
e
The price of ███ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███████
(E) does not offer any information to distinguish between high- and low-quality teas. The price of tea being generally the same across regions does not offer insight into why high- and low-quality teas are the same price.