Q16 - Essayist: Many people are hypocritical

[jk8451]

Hi there, I narrowed down the answer choices to only B) and D), and then I chose D), which is the incorrect one.

I eliminated B), the correct answer, because I was not sure "being morally upright" (as in the stimulus) and "live by moral standards" are the same things, because, down to the end, what is the definition of moral standards, and what if each person's standard is different from another one's?

I thought D) was okay, but then I pondered what it meant by "better"... it initially seemed very vaguely defined, but on the second thought, between the only two situations given in the stimulus, the latter did seem to be a "better" choice.

I think my main problem here is how to know when I am over-thinking and when I need to think a bit more critically... Thanks very much for any help in advance!

[chike_eze]

I got this one wrong during timed PT. Inference questions give me problems.

I did it again just now and noticed something... All the wrong answers had something that made me go "Hmm, that's a bit too strong!". (B) didn't.

Real time...

(A) "no one.. blameless" -- don't remember reading anything that strong
(B) Sounds good.. Leave for now
(C) "fall into moral lapses!" -- Ouch, that's not supported, too strong
(D) "hiding.. better way than.." -- No strong conclusion about preference was given. Eliminate.
(E) "no stronger motivator?" -- Wow, not so. Too opinionated. Eliminate.

Pressed for time... (B) it is!

I realize my post is not typical, but that's how I got to (B) this time around.

[maryadkins]

You're right that you want to look for term shifts, which is why you ended up eliminating (B). But you're also right that you don't want to take this too far so that you end up overlooking a reasoning flaw in another answer choice because you're distracted by (what turns out to be) an inconsequential term shift in the right answer choice.

In this case, we are told that hypocrisy if exposed leads to people (we don't know how many) being motivated to be better. We're also told if it's not exposed, it leads to most people trying to be good (we don't know how many). Whether or not it's exposed, hypocrisy is having a positive effect on some people--but we don't know which affects more of them. (D) suggests we do, so it's wrong.

(E) poses the same problem.
(A) and (C) are out of scope--stimulus doesn't mention it at all.

[griffin.811]

When I read this I thought B seemed too strong. It appears to be claiming that in all cases H encourages people to live by moral standards, but we do not know this. For instance when there is H that is not exposed, we only know that "people are motivated to be good"

Are we supposed to assume that "Living by moral standards" is the same as "trying to be good"? This seems like a huge term shift...

Not surprisingly this is why I too went with D. Initially I was thinking "Hiding H, we know from the passage, leads people to try to be good, whereas we onluy know that H, when exposed, leads to trying to live by moral stds. Since we dont know if moral stds =good, D must fit. But as I write this I see a few issues with D too.

1. "hiding" H is very different from "not exposing" H
2. the fact that we dont know if moral = good should've been a red flag that D couldnt be the answer, because if moral does = good, perhaps D is wrong.

*What is the proper thought process for something like this? Where am I going wrong, and can someone write out a "real time" thought process?

Thanks

[daniel]

When I read this I thought B seemed too strong. It appears to be claiming that in all cases H encourages people to live by moral standards, but we do not know this. For instance when there is H that is not exposed, we only know that "people are motivated to be good"

Are we supposed to assume that "Living by moral standards" is the same as "trying to be good"? This seems like a huge term shift...

Not surprisingly this is why I too went with D. Initially I was thinking "Hiding H, we know from the passage, leads people to try to be good, whereas we onluy know that H, when exposed, leads to trying to live by moral stds. Since we dont know if moral stds =good, D must fit. But as I write this I see a few issues with D too.

1. "hiding" H is very different from "not exposing" H
2. the fact that we dont know if moral = good should've been a red flag that D couldnt be the answer, because if moral does = good, perhaps D is wrong.

*What is the proper thought process for something like this? Where am I going wrong, and can someone write out a "real time" thought process?

Thanks

Here's my thought process for this question; hope it helps:

1. Read question stem; recognized the question type as Inference - Most Strongly Supported.

2. Read stimulus to get an understanding of the facts presented. Some people are hypocritical. hypocrisy exposed --> some people strive to be better people. hypocrisy not exposed --> most people motivated to be good. NOTE TO SELF: Hypocrisy, whether exposed or not, has a positive effect on at least some people.

3. Answer choices:

(A) Out of scope: The stimulus does not discuss the concept of blame. Additionally, "no one" is too extreme; the stimulus talks about "many" (i.e., "some"), and "most"... No where do we see any discussion of "all" or "none"... eliminate.

(B) Seems to align with my initial observation that hypocrisy can have a positive role. Keep it for now.

(C) Out of scope: Nowhere in the stimulus do we hear anything about encouraging others to "fall into moral lapses." The stimulus only discusses the positive effects of hypocrisy. Eliminate.

(D) Comparison trap: This answer choice makes an unsupported comparison between exposing hypocrisy and hiding hypocrisy. Eliminate.

(E) Extreme: The stimulus talks about hypocrisy only. There are probably other ways to motivate people to be good, such as a system of rewards and punishments, which would be more effective than exposing hypocrisy. No such comparisons are discussed in the stimulus. Eliminate.

(B) is the only choice left, and it aligns with what I had anticipated.

[ohthatpatrick]

GREAT response.

Incidentally, to an earlier question, I don't think "being good" and "living by moral standards" is a huge term shift.

In general, morality is the question of right/wrong or good/bad, so I could live with using some of those interchangeably.