Interpreting Graphs - PSAT Critical Reading

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Question

The chart below maps how scientists view others' work (left) and how they suspect others will view their own work (right) if the researcher (the scientist or another, depending on the focus) admitted to engaging in questionable research practices.

Screen shot 2020 08 26 at 9.36.40 am

Adapted from Fetterman & Sassenberg, "The Reputational Consequences of Failed Replications and Wrongness Admission among Scientists." December 9, 2015, PLOS One.

According to the graph, when the focus of the question was on their own actions, scientists

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Answer

The key to any graph-based question is to make sure to look not just at the graph itself, but also at any additional information that is presented with the graph. In this case, you are told that the bars on the left represent how the scientists would view others' future work if the other person admitted to wrongdoing. Notice that if the other person admitted that they had been wrong that the people surveyed would be less likely to suspect them than if they didn't admit to wrongdoing. In contrast, the bars on the right show how they would anticipate others to react if they admitted to wrongdoing. In this case, they said that others would be more suspicious of their work if they did admit to wrongdoing than if they didn't. The answer that matches this is "incorrectly assumed that admitting that a study was wrong would lead others to be more suspicious of their work". While they assumed that others would be more suspicious of their work if they admitted to wrongdoing, scientists, in general, were less suspicious of individuals who admitted to wrongdoing.

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