XAT 2014 — VARC Question 14
Analyze the following passage and provide appropriate answers for the questions that follow.
Either explicitly or implicitly, our informants suggest that the objects that transfix them are hoped to be conduits to, rather than surrogates for, love, respect, recognition, status, security, escape, or attractiveness. These are the social relations we desire, consciously or subconsciously, beneath the objects that we find so compelling. The value of the objects that we focus our longing upon inheres less in the object or in a Lacanian search for childhood love than in the culture. The hope for the hope that an altered state of being may result keeps the cycle of desire moving.
Desires are nurtured by self-embellished fantasies of a wholly different self, and they may be stimulated by external sources, including advertising, retail displays, films, television programs, stories told by other people, and the consumption behavior of real or imaginary others. But we find that the person who feels strong desire has almost always actively stimulated this desire by attending, seeking out, entertaining, and embellishing such images. The desires that occupy us are vivid and riveting fantasies that we participate in nurturing, growing, and pursuing, through self-seduction.The social nature of desire implies that preferences of consumers are far from being independent. Yet, choice models assume that preferences of consumers act as individuals. The mimetic aspect of desire creates difficulties for using individual attitude or intention measures to predict adoption of new products whose use will be visible. The notion of desire we have derived suggests that the appeal of the desired object is not inherent in the object itself.
Models that begin with preferences for product attributes or benefits are therefore problematic. The consumer, individually and jointly, has a role in constructing the object of desire, within a social context. What makes consumer desire attach to a particular object is not so much the object’s particular characteristics as the consumer’s own hopes for an altered state of being, involving an altered set of social relationships.
Consider the statement given below as true:
“The failure of men to transition from being shoppers and consumers to producers and creators has implications about their manliness.”
Which of the following statements would concur with the above idea and the theme of the main paragraph?
Answer & solution
- A
Manliness is no longer socially desirable.
- B
Boys will be boys and will always consume more.
- C
Men will be men and will always create and produce.
Products that fulfil the desire will sell more.
- E
Consumers would like to buy more do-it-yourself kits.
According to the main paragraph, “the hope for hope that an altered state of being may result keeps the cycle of desire going”. The aspect of desire has been given prime importance in the main paragraph. The main paragraph also discusses the factors that influence desire. Therefore, objects that are likely to fulfill desire will appeal more to people and will sell more.
Although option 1 addresses the idea presented, it has no bearings with the main paragraph.
The tendencies of boys has nothing to do with the idea or the main paragraph. Eliminate option 2.
Option 3 contradicts the presented idea.
“Do-it-yourself kits” have not been mentioned in both, the idea presented and the main paragraph.
Hence, the correct answer is option 4.