The central theme of the passage is about the choice between:

CAT Question Paper | CAT Verbal Ability Slot

Question :

The central theme of the passage is about the choice between:

Started 1 month ago by Shashank in

A.
stories that unite people and those that distinguish groups from each other.
B.
leaders who unknowingly spread fictions and those who intentionally do so.
C.
attaining social cohesion and propagating objective truth.
D.
truth and power.

Option C is the correct answer.

Explanatory Answer

The central idea of the passage is that when it comes to uniting people around a common story, fiction has several advantages over objective truth. The author states that ‘Even if we need to pay some price for deactivating our rational faculties, the advantages of increased social cohesion are often so big that fictional stories routinely triumph over the truth in human history’.

So, option C is the right choice.

Note that the passage is not about the choice between truth and power. The author states truth doesn’t always convey power and talks about the ‘complicated’ relationship between the two.