Matthew D. Rocklage and team examined whether consumer ratings of movies can predict box office success. The team considered both...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Matthew D. Rocklage and team examined whether consumer ratings of movies can predict box office success. The team considered both numeric star ratings and written reviews in their research. To analyze the written reviews, the team measured the emotionality—the degree to which a written review expresses an emotional reaction—of user reviews on a movie rating website, assigning each review an emotionality score. After reviewing this research, a student argues that the emotionality of movie reviews is unrelated to a movie's success at the box office.
Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the student's conclusion?
Movies that had the highest average emotionality scores received the lowest average star ratings on the movie rating website.
The average emotionality score of a movie's reviews was a positive predictor of that movie's box office earnings.
More than half of the movies that the team examined received an average star rating of 3 out of 5 stars.
The movies that were most successful at the box office tended to have high average star ratings.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'Matthew D. Rocklage and team examined whether consumer ratings of movies can predict box office success.' |
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| 'The team considered both numeric star ratings and written reviews in their research.' |
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| 'To analyze the written reviews, the team measured the emotionality—the degree to which a written review expresses an emotional reaction—of user reviews on a movie rating website, assigning each review an emotionality score.' |
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| 'After reviewing this research, a student argues that the emotionality of movie reviews is unrelated to a movie's success at the box office.' |
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Main Point: Researchers studied whether movie ratings predict box office success by analyzing both star ratings and the emotionality of written reviews, but a student concluded that emotionality doesn't relate to box office performance.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
What's being asked? Which finding would most directly weaken the student's conclusion?
What type of answer do we need? Evidence that contradicts the student's claim that emotionality is unrelated to box office success.
Any limiting keywords? Most directly weaken
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The student claims emotionality is unrelated to box office success
- To weaken this, we need evidence showing emotionality IS related to box office success
- The right answer should show a direct connection between emotionality and box office performance
Movies that had the highest average emotionality scores received the lowest average star ratings on the movie rating website.
✗ Incorrect
- This tells us about the relationship between emotionality and star ratings, not box office success
The average emotionality score of a movie's reviews was a positive predictor of that movie's box office earnings.
✓ Correct
- This directly states that emotionality scores were a positive predictor of box office earnings
- This completely contradicts the student's claim that emotionality is unrelated to box office success
More than half of the movies that the team examined received an average star rating of 3 out of 5 stars.
✗ Incorrect
- This is just a statistic about star ratings distribution and tells us nothing about emotionality
The movies that were most successful at the box office tended to have high average star ratings.
✗ Incorrect
- This connects star ratings to box office success, but says nothing about emotionality