Based on the text, what did Salganik and colleagues determine about c… | Verbal SAT Question

Sociologist Matthew Salganik and colleagues conducted an experimental study to examine how social influence affects cultural markets. The researchers created an artificial online music platform where over 14,000 participants could listen to, rate, and download 48 previously unknown songs. In the control condition, participants chose songs based solely on their own evaluations without seeing data on other users’ preferences. In the social influence conditions, participants could see real-time download counts reflecting the choices of earlier listeners. Salganik and his team observed that when download counts were visible, popular songs became dramatically more popular while unpopular songs languished, demonstrating that social influence amplifies inequality in market success and makes hit songs largely unpredictable based on intrinsic quality alone.

Based on the text, what did Salganik and colleagues determine about cultural markets where consumers can observe other consumers’ choices?

Consumers in such markets tend to abandon their own preferences entirely and download only the songs they believe experts have rated highest.

Visibility of other consumers’ choices ensures that every song eventually finds an audience proportional to its intrinsic quality.

Observability of choices allows social influence to magnify early differences in popularity, so market success becomes more unequal and less predictable from quality alone.

Social influence operates only when consumers can rate songs, not when they can merely observe download counts.