Only True Word Nerds Can Pass This SAT Vocabulary Challenge – Get 25/27 To Prove It

I thought the sentence gave it enough context to make 'fair' a more likely answer.

Indeed. Disinterested means having no vested interest or benefit from the outcome.

Yes! I thought exactly the same.

Right. "Disinterested" is better than "fair". You can be impartial, yet quite unfair, if you are unfair to both sides equally.

I noticed that as well, but figured they didn't know that, so I chose fair.

That one should have been correct with "fair" or "disinterested." I chose "fair" because the other answers were so simple that I decided to go with the easier word. I also know that many people, even highly educated ones, confuse "disinterested" with "uninterested" and thought that the quiz makers may have done that here.

Yes. #20 is just wrong. Disinterested = Impartial or unbiased. Not to be confused with "uninterested" (having no interest in something)

Yes, but the point of the statement is that he was interested. There was public pressure for him to take a side, so he indeed had an interest. In which case, for this example, he was fair, despite the public pressure for him to not be so.

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a better option would have been 'balanced'.

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Came down here to say this. In fact, fair is a worse answer, because one can be biased and stlll make a fair decision, if you can put aside the bias.

But it's better than the other options.