The layouts of supermarkets are not accidental: they are part of a plan designed to make customers walk all the way to the back of the store just to pick up a loaf of bread, passing tempting displays the whole way. But supermarkets can alienate customers by placing popular items in the rear; surveys list inconvenience as shoppers’ top reason for disliking supermarkets.
Summary
Supermarkets are designed so that customers must walk to the back of the store to pick up a loaf of bread, passing tempting displays along the way. However, supermarkets can alienate customers by stocking popular items in the back of the store. Surveys indicate inconvenience is a top reason shoppers’ list for disliking supermarkets.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
Some strategies for manipulating people have unwanted consequences.
A
Supermarkets should focus on customers who want to purchase many items in a single trip.
This answer is unsupported. The stimulus does not make a value judgment in regards to what supermarkets should or should not do.
B
Alienation of customers is not good for business.
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know based on the stimulus if the strategy described is not good for business. It could be the case that, even if a customer dislikes a supermarket’s tactics, the customer returns and shops there anyway.
C
Even well-thought-out plans can fail.
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know whether the tactic described in the stimulus is a failure.
D
Distracting customers is not good for business.
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know based on the stimulus if the strategy described is not good for business. It could be the case that, even if a customer dislikes a supermarket’s tactics, the customer returns and shops there anyway.
E
Manipulation of people can have unwelcome consequences.
This answer is strongly supported. The supermarkets’ tactics can give rise to unwelcome consequences in the form of their customers feeling alienated.
For example, maybe 100 people cross with the light and 10 of them die, while 10 people cross against it and 8 of them die. In this case, 10% of people crossing with the light die, while 80% crossing against it die, meaning that crossing against the light is much more dangerous, even though a smaller number of people die.
A
relies on sources that are likely to be biased in their reporting
B
presumes, without providing justification, that because two things are correlated there must be a causal relationship between them
C
does not adequately consider the possibility that a correlation between two events may be explained by a common cause
D
ignores the possibility that the effects of the types of actions considered might be quite different in environments other than the ones studied
E
ignores possible differences in the frequency of the two actions whose risk is being assessed
A
A weaker correlation between taking melatonin and the inducement of sleep was found in the studies that included people with insomnia than in the studies that did not.
B
None of the studies that suggested that taking melatonin tablets can induce sleep examined a fully representative sample of the human population.
C
In the studies that included subjects with insomnia, only subjects without insomnia were significantly affected by doses of melatonin.
D
Several people who were in control groups and only given placebos claimed that the tablets induced sleep.
E
If melatonin were helpful in treating insomnia, then every person with insomnia who took doses of melatonin would appear to be significantly affected by it.