Question 113·Medium·Command of Evidence
To study how the framing of central bank bond purchases affects the public’s views, economists surveyed participants’ reactions to three versions of the same policy announcement:
- a neutral announcement that mentioned no new bond purchases
- an announcement describing bond purchases as temporary
- an announcement describing bond purchases as open-ended
A student looking at the graph concludes that simply mentioning bond purchases does not necessarily reduce trust in the currency or raise inflation expectations, but describing the purchases as open-ended both reduces trust and raises inflation expectations.
Which choice best describes data from the graph that support the student’s conclusion?
For command-of-evidence questions tied to a graph, translate the student’s conclusion into specific comparisons (for example, “temporary ≈ neutral” and “open-ended moves both measures”). Then check the graph for those exact relationships and pick the option that states all required comparisons without adding extra claims.
Hints
Use the conclusion as a checklist
You need evidence for two parts: what happens under the temporary framing and what happens under the open-ended framing.
Look for “almost no change” first
Compare the temporary bars to the neutral bars in both categories; see whether they are close together or far apart.
Then find the condition with a clear shift
Identify which condition shows both a noticeably lower trust bar and a noticeably higher expected-inflation bar.
Step-by-step Explanation
Identify what the conclusion requires
The conclusion makes two comparisons:
- Temporary purchases vs. neutral: no necessary harm (so the bars should be about the same).
- Open-ended purchases: both lower trust and higher expected inflation than the other conditions.
Check the temporary-purchase bars against neutral
On both measures, the temporary-purchase bars are very close to the neutral bars (trust is only slightly lower, and expected inflation is essentially the same). That supports “not necessarily” harming perceptions.
Check the open-ended bars against the others
For the open-ended condition, the trust bar is clearly lower than the others, and the expected-inflation bar is clearly higher than the others. That matches the second part of the conclusion.
Select the choice that states both patterns
The choice that describes temporary ≈ neutral but open-ended = lower trust and higher inflation expectations is:
Compared with neutral, temporary purchases change trust and inflation very little, but open-ended purchases lower trust and raise expected inflation.