Movies that had the highest average emotionality scores received the lowest average star ratings on the movie rating website.

The average emotionality score of a movie’s reviews was a positive predictor of that movie’s box office earnings.

More than half of the movies that the team examined received an average star rating of 3 out of 5 stars.

The movies that were most successful at the box office tended to have high average star ratings.

English

PASSAGE: Matthew D. Rocklage and team examined whether consumer ratings of movies can predict box office success. The team considered both numeric star ratings and written reviews in their research. To analyze the written reviews, the team measured the emotionality—the degree to which a written review expresses an emotional reaction—of user reviews on a movie rating website, assigning each review an emotionality score. After reviewing this research, a student argues that the emotionality of movie reviews is unrelated to a movie’s success at the box office.

 QUESTION: Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the student’s conclusion?

