SAT OwlQuestion bank / Command of Evidence
Some sociologists have proposed that people are more likely to donate to a charity when they are told that many others have already donated. To test this idea, a researcher mailed two versions of a fundraising letter to randomly selected households. One version simply asked for a donation. The other added that "more than 5,000 of your neighbors have already given this year."
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the sociologists' proposal?
The two versions of the letter produced the same rate of donations.
Most households that received a letter did not open it.
Households that received the letter mentioning other donors gave at a higher rate than households that received the simpler letter.
Households that received the simpler letter gave larger donations, on average, than other households did.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C
The proposal predicts that hearing about other donors makes people more likely to give. Choice C shows a higher donation rate among households told about their neighbors' giving, which supports the proposal.
Choice D concerns the size of donations, not how likely people were to donate, which is what the proposal is about.
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