Read the following excerpt from Levitt and Dubner’s Freakonomics.
The bagel data also reflect how much personal mood seems to affect honesty. Weather, for instance, is a
major factor. Unseasonably pleasant weather inspires people to pay at a higher rate. Unseasonably cold
weather, meanwhile, makes people cheat prolifically; so do heavy rain and wind. Worst are the holidays.
The week of Christmas produces a 2 percent drop in payment rates—again, a 15 percent increase in theft,
an effect on the same magnitude, in reverse, as that of 9/11. Thanksgiving is nearly as bad; the week of
Valentine’s Day is also lousy, as is the week straddling April 15. There are, however, a few good holidays:
the weeks that include the Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Columbus Day. The difference in the two sets of
holidays? The low-cheating holidays represent little more than an extra day off from work. The high-
cheating holidays are fraught with miscellaneous anxieties and the high expectations of loved ones.
Based on the excerpt, the conclusion that personal mood seems to affect honesty is best supported by which of
the following statements?
Answer:
The statement that best supports the conclusion that personal mood seems to affect honesty is the observation of how weather and holidays affect people’s payment rates. For instance, unseasonably pleasant weather inspires people to pay at a higher rate, while unseasonably cold weather or heavy rain and wind make people cheat more. Similarly, high-cheating holidays are associated with miscellaneous anxieties and high expectations of loved ones.