A study measures social support and health in two groups: people living through severe stress, and people whose lives are currently calm. Support predicts noticeably better health among the stressed, and makes almost no difference among the calm. Which model does this pattern favour, and why?

C. The buffering model, whose claim is that support works against stress.

A buffer is worth exactly what it absorbs, so its value should shrink where there is little impact, and it did. The calm group is what makes this evidence rather than a shrug: direct effects predicted a benefit there too, and its absence is what separates the two models.