According to a study conducted by a psychologist on chronic procrastinators, on average, they tend to experience significantly higher levels of daily anxiety than non-procrastinators do. On the basis of this finding, the psychologist concluded that people who experience high levels of anxiety are likely to become chronic procrastinators. Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the psychologist’s conclusion?

As per the researcher’s study, those who experience high levels of anxiety are likely to become addicts (in this case, procrastinators). This means on an average, procrastinators have high anxiety levels. This argument can be weakened if it can be proved that procrastinators do not actually have high anxiety levels as a trait leading to the behavior. Option (c) says that the procrastinators that the psychologist studied were often unsuccessful in completing their tasks even when their anxiety levels were low. This raises doubt against the researcher’s conclusion. Thus, option (c) is the right answer.