Command of Evidence SAT question

Choice C is the best answer because it presents a finding that, if true, would weaken the claim made by people who favor the traditional view of voter behavior. According to the text, people who favor that view believe that voting in an election doesn’t change a voter’s attitude toward the candidates in that election. If Washington and Mullainathan found that two years after an election, attitudes toward the winning candidate were significantly more polarized among subjects who had voted than among subjects who had been too young to vote, that would suggest that the act of voting did have an effect on the voters’ attitudes toward the candidates, which would undermine the claim that voting doesn’t change voters’ attitudes.

Choice A is incorrect because a finding about links between subjects’ attitudes and general political orientation, regardless of age and ability to vote, wouldn’t address the presence or absence of changes in attitudes among those subjects who did actually vote. Therefore, the finding wouldn’t have any bearing on the claim that voting in an election doesn’t change a voter’s attitude toward the candidates in that election. Choice B is incorrect because a finding that positive attitudes toward a winning candidate significantly increased in the two years after the election among subjects who had been too young to vote would involve only people who didn’t vote; therefore, the finding wouldn’t have any bearing on the claim that when people do vote, the act of voting doesn’t change their attitudes toward the candidates. Choice D is incorrect because the finding that subjects in both groups were more likely to have negative attitudes than positive attitudes toward the winning candidate two years after an election would reflect all subjects’ attitudes at one particular time whether they voted or not, rather than the presence or absence of a change in voters’ attitudes after voting. Therefore, the finding would neither weaken nor strengthen the claim that voting in an election doesn’t change a voter’s attitude toward the candidates.