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Question

Difficulty: HardStrengthen

Consumer Psychologist: A recent study of a large online retailer compared two groups of customers: those who manually selected individual items for a monthly delivery and those who paid a 15 percent premium for a "curated" box, where the retailer selected items on their behalf from the same inventory. The customers receiving the curated boxes reported significantly higher overall satisfaction with their purchases. Clearly, the psychological relief of avoiding decision fatigue—the mental exhaustion that comes from making numerous choices—is the primary reason for this higher satisfaction.

Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens the consumer psychologist's argument?

  1. A
    Customers who received the curated boxes frequently cited the element of surprise as the most enjoyable aspect of the service.
  2. B
    People who frequently experience decision fatigue in their daily lives are generally more likely to purchase curated subscription boxes than people who do not.
  3. C
    Retailers who offer curated boxes typically employ expert shoppers whose primary job is to anticipate consumer trends and select high-quality items.
  4. Customers who manually selected their items from a temporarily restricted, significantly smaller inventory reported higher satisfaction levels than those who manually selected from the full inventory.Answer
  5. E
    The higher satisfaction reported by curated box subscribers economically justifies the 15 percent premium that the retailer charges for the curation service.

Answer

The statement that customers selecting from a restricted inventory reported higher satisfaction than those selecting from the full inventory.
This option strengthens the argument by isolating the variable of choice. By showing that a mere reduction in the number of choices (a smaller inventory) leads to higher satisfaction even without expert curation or the element of surprise, it validates the psychologist's central claim that avoiding decision fatigue is the active mechanism driving the satisfaction.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the conclusion of the argument.
The conclusion is that the primary reason for higher satisfaction among curated box customers is the psychological relief of avoiding decision fatigue.
Understanding the precise causal claim is necessary to evaluate what would logically strengthen it.
2
Identify the premises and the logical gap.
Premise: Curated box customers (no choices made) have higher satisfaction than manual selection customers (many choices made). Gap: The argument assumes the cause of this difference is the lack of choices (decision fatigue), ignoring other possible causes like the quality of the curated items or the element of surprise.
Finding the logical gap allows us to anticipate what a strengthening answer must do: either rule out alternative causes or directly validate the proposed causal mechanism.
3
Evaluate the options to find one that supports the causal mechanism.
The correct option shows that reducing the number of choices in the manual selection group also increases satisfaction. This isolates the 'number of choices' variable and demonstrates that as choices decrease, satisfaction increases.
Showing a covariant relationship between the proposed cause (amount of choices) and the effect (satisfaction level) provides strong evidence that the proposed causal relationship is correct.

Key Concept

Strengthening causal arguments by demonstrating covariance or isolating variables.
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