Self-study
When a threat to life is common, as are automobile and industrial accidents, only unusual instances tend to be prominently reported by the news media. █████████ ██ ████ ████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██ █████████ ███ ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ██████████
Summary
In situations that commonly threaten people’s lives (like car crashes and industrial accidents), the news only really reports unusual incidents. However, rare threats like product tampering are prominently reported. Also, people generally estimate the risk of different threats based on how much they hear about those threats.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
The stimulus supports these conclusions:
News media are more likely to report on rare or unusual threats to life than on common threats.
People who estimate risk based on news reports likely underestimate the risk of common threats and overestimate the risk of rare or unusual threats.
16.
If the statements above are █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████
a
Whether governmental action ████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ █ ██████ ████ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██████
This is not supported. The stimulus doesn’t mention or allude to government action at all, so we have no basis to conclude when the government will or won’t act to lessen a risk.
b
People tend to ███████ ███ ████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ████████████ ████████ ██ ██ █████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ███
This is not supported. The facts given don’t suggest anything about threats seeming dreadful or how much control the people affected have. So, the facts don’t support any conclusion on those points.
c
Those who get █████ ███████████ █████████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ██ ████████████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ████████
This is strongly supported. People estimate risk based on how often they hear about threats. The news rarely reports on common threats but often reports on rare threats, so someone who gets information from the news would hear more about rare threats, and thus overestimate them.
d
Reporters tend not ██ ████ ███ ███████████ █████ ██████████ ██████ ███████ ███ ██ ███████████ █████ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ███████
This is not supported. We never learn about what information people tend to seek out, or any other distinction about long-range versus immediate threats. So, we can’t draw any conclusion about this.
e
The resources that ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███████ █████████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████████
This is not supported. All we know is that the news media will report rare threats like product tampering. We don’t know anything about how that might translate to resources being spent on protection.