The stimulus tells us that R Bar Beans are considered the best of all brands among all age groups, leading both Texas T Beans and Aunt Sally's beans by a lot. But, NATIONAL sales figures show that Texas T and Aunt Sally's both sold way more cans of beans than R Bar did.
That's weird, why might that have been? The question stem asks us which of the following answer choices would not help to resolve the apparent paradox. In other words, four of the five answer choices would, by themselves, help to resolve the apparent paradox.
Answer A would help resolve the paradox. If Texas T Beans and Aunt Sally's Beans are much cheaper than R Bar Beans, then it makes sense that they could do worse in the survey but better in sales. Think of Apple products. They might fare better in surveys, but national sales of Windows computers could dwarf Apple's sales because Windows products are generally far cheaper.
Answer B does not help resolve the apparent paradox. It states that some of the surveyed age groups showed more of a preference for R Bar Beans than did others. We already know in the stimulus that R Bar Beans were considered the best of all brands among all age groups by a wide margin. All Answer B does is tell us that within some of these age groups, the preference for R Bar Beans was an even wider margin than in other age groups. This answer does not explain why Texas T and Aunt Sally's sold many more cans of beans than R Bar did even though R Bar performed far better in the survey. This answer gives us no cause for the discrepancy between the survey results and national sales figures, so it's useless. This is our answer choice.
Answer C would help resolve the discrepancy. If the survey was carried out in a really small area where R Bar sells its beans, then it's possible R Bar could have done well in this survey but not sold as much nationwide as Texas T or Aunt Sally's. What if R Bar is only sold in one city, and this survey was in that city? The discrepancy would make sense.
Answer D would help resolve the paradox. Even if R Bar did better in the survey, it's possible that their demand of being carried exclusively hurts their sales figures because most food stores refuse to carry them.
Answer E helps resolve the discrepancy. The stimulus tells us that these national sales figures were for last year. If R Bar beans were introduced only 3 months prior to the calculation of these sales figures, then Texas T and Aunt Sally's would have had a 9-month head start on sales over R Bar, which could explain why they sold so much more despite performing far worse in the survey.
Does this help? Let us know if you have any more questions!
