Question

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.
The excerpt is an example of inductive reasoning because the authors



work from a generalization to formulate specific examples.

arrive at a generalization after starting with another generalization.

formulate a generalization by studying specific examples.

arrive at specific examples by studying other examples.

Answer 1

The excerpt is an example of inductive reasoning because the authors formulate a generalization by studying specific examples.

Here are some examples of those examples:

* 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.

* The high-cheating holidays are fraught with miscellaneous anxieties and the high expectations of loved ones.

We can say that this information is real since it has been seen year after year the same effect on people.

The other options are not correct because they already start from a generalization or never get to one, meanwhile, the correct one creates that generalization.