Most people are indignant at the suggestion that they are not reliable authorities about their real wants. Such self–...

Naz on July 19, 2015

The answer is not (D). The correct answer is (E).

A good trick here is to note the first two words of this argument. Whenever an argument starts with "Most people," more often than not, the arguer will disagree with them. The pattern usually goes something like this: "most people think/believe/do this, but this is not correct because..." So, let's take a look at the argument:

The first line tells us basically that most people believe that they know what they want, i.e. most people get annoyed when one suggests they might not know what they want. The second line introduces the arguer's viewpoint that this is most likely not true, since knowing what you want is, in actuality, not the easiest thing to accomplish. The third line tells us why it is not the easiest: knowing what you want usually requires hard work and even potentially risky work. The last line further explains why it is probably not true, then, that most people know what they want because people unconsciously convince themselves that they want what society says they should want in order to avoid such effort.

So, as you can see, every line in the argument is supporting the arguer's viewpoint that most people are wrong in their belief that they know what they want, in other words: (E) people are not necessarily reliable authorities about wha they really want.

Therefore, answer choice (E) is the main point.

Hope that was helpful! Please let us know if you have any other questions.