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Question is the thread title( the one on expected observance vs actual). Could some explain the difference between answer choices C and E for me? In my mind they're close enough to be interchangeable.

Ideally I would like to be able to eliminate C as an answer on its own rather than having to compare it against E and picking E as the better answer.

The stimulus isn't saying anybody is "less observant" - that's too strong of a statement to make, not to mention that it's not suggested in the stimulus for either of the two perspectives. What it's getting at is people's expectations about other people's observations are overestimated than is actually the case. C is from the perspective of those that are doing the observing whereas E is about the people who are being observed - which is the key difference here. Hope this helps

So, both (C) and (E) contrast a reality and a perception.

(C) compares:
PERCEPTION: how observant we think we are
and
REALITY: how observant we actually are

As an example: (C) would match a situation where the volleyball team claimed they always noticed poor performance of their teammates, but when it actually happened, they didn't notice it.

(E) compares:
PERCEPTION: how much we think other people notice us
and
REALITY: how much other people actually notice us

The situations in the stimulus are all about someone's perception of other people noticing them contrasted with the reality of those others noticing them, which matches (E).

Does that help clear it up?

Christine (MLSAT) wrote:So, both (C) and (E) contrast a reality and a perception.

(C) compares:
PERCEPTION: how observant we think we are
and
REALITY: how observant we actually are

As an example: (C) would match a situation where the volleyball team claimed they always noticed poor performance of their teammates, but when it actually happened, they didn't notice it.

(E) compares:
PERCEPTION: how much we think other people notice us
and
REALITY: how much other people actually notice us

The situations in the stimulus are all about someone's perception of other people noticing them contrasted with the reality of those others noticing them, which matches (E).

Does that help clear it up?

Thanks this is really concise.

Since it's written out like this, I can see it, but in the heat of the moment my mind automatically assumed people decided how much they get noticed based on their own level of observance. E.g. I think people will notice my red shirt, since I think I would.

That's not necessarily true in all instances. Funny how the mind likes to fill in the gaps...

Yeah, we do it all the time. It's what allows us to see conclusions that weren't stated, read ideas into RC passages that seem reasonable, but were never mentioned, and totally blow past assumptions. I call it 'mental spackle'. We just....fill in blanks.

It's something we're trained to use from a young age to function in social situations so we have to unlearn a lot of social conditioning to break that.