Question 41·Medium·Command of Evidence
To test whether a brief warning banner could reduce risky behavior in email, a team of network-security researchers sent employees a weekly simulated phishing email for six weeks. Half the employees saw a warning banner above the email message, and half did not. The researchers also grouped employees by prior security-training experience (novice or experienced). They measured the percentage of employees in each group who clicked the link in the simulated phishing email each week.
The researchers concluded that the banner’s effect differed by employee experience: compared with employees who did not see the banner, ______
Which choice most effectively uses data from the graph to complete the assertion?
For command-of-evidence questions with a graph, restate the claim as a specific comparison to verify (here, banner vs no banner within each experience group). Then choose a clear reference point (often the final week) and compare the size of those within-group differences; pick the option that matches the larger/smaller gaps without introducing unsupported claims.
Hints
Look for the banner’s effect within each group
For novices, compare the “banner” line to the “no banner” line. Then make the same comparison for experienced employees.
Use one week to compare the gaps cleanly
Week 6 makes the differences easy to see: estimate the distance between the two novice lines and between the two experienced lines.
Pick the choice describing the larger banner-vs-no-banner gap
Choose the option saying the banner reduces clicking much more for the group with the bigger gap.
Step-by-step Explanation
Interpret what “effect of the banner” means
The banner’s effect is the difference in clicking rates between employees who saw the banner and those who did not, within the same experience group.
Compare banner vs no-banner within each experience group
For novice employees, the “no banner” clicking rate stays a little above 50% while the “banner” rate drops to about 20% by week 6, creating a very large difference.
For experienced employees, the “no banner” rate is about 22% and the “banner” rate is about 15% by week 6, creating a much smaller difference.
Match the comparison to the answer choice
The option that states the banner reduces click rates much more for novices than for experienced employees best matches the much larger novice banner vs no-banner gap.
Answer: the banner lowered click rates much more for novice employees than it did for experienced employees.