The producers of instant coffee found their product strongly resisted in the market places despite their manifest advantages. Furthermore, the advertising cost for instant coffee was far greater than that for regular coffee. Efforts were made to find the cause of the consumers “seemingly unreasonable resistance to the product”. The reason given by most people was dislike for the taste. The producers suspected that there might be deeper reasons. However, this was confirmed by one of motivation research's classic studies, one often cited(引用)in the trade.
Mason Haire, professor of the University of California, constructed two shopping lists that were the same except for one item. There were six items common to both lists: hamburger, carrots, baking powder, bread, canned peaches and potatoes, with the bands or amounts specified. The seventh item, in the fifth place on both lists, read “1 Ib. Maxwell House coffee” on one list and “Nescafe instant coffee” on the other. One list was given to each person in a group of fifty women, and the other list to those in another group of the same size. The women were asked to study their lists and then to describe, as far as they could, the kind of woman(“personality and character”)who would draw up(制定)that shopping list. Nearly half of those who had received the list including instant coffee described a housewife who was lazy and a poor planner. On the other hand, only one woman in the other group described the housewife, who had included regular coffee on her list, as lazy; only six of that group suggested that she was a poor planner. Eight women felt that the instant-coffee user was probably not a good wife. No one in the other group drew such a conclusion about the house-wife who intended to buy regular coffee.
53. In this instance, the purpose of motivation research was to discover .
why people drink coffee
B. why instant coffee was successful
C. why regular coffee was successful
D. the real reason why people would not buy instant coffee
54. This investigation indicates that .
50 percent of housewives are lazy
B. housewives who use instant coffee are lazy
C. many women believe that wives who use instant coffee are lazy
D. wives who use regular coffee are good planners
55. On the results of this test, the producers probably revised their advertising to show a .
lazy housewife using regular coffee
B. hard-working housewife using instant coffee
C. lazy housewife using instant coffee
D. man obviously enjoying the taste of instant coffee
56. It is implied but not stated that .
A. Despite its advantages, most people dislike instant coffee because of its taste.
B. The advertising cost for instant coffee was greater than for regular coffee.
C. Very often we do not know the real reasons for doing things.
D. Taste is the principal factor in determining what we buy.