When does the exclusive or operator return false?

The exclusive or (often represented as XOR) operator returns false when both operands are true because its fundamental function is to evaluate the truth of two values and return true only when one operand is true and the other is false. Thus, it identifies a scenario where there is a difference between the two operands.

When both operands are true, the expression does not meet the exclusive condition of one being true and the other false; instead, both fulfill the criteria for being true, resulting in a false outcome. This characteristic highlights the nature of XOR, which specifically demands a disparity between the values to return true.

While the other options offer scenarios where the output is true (for instance, when both operands are false), the defining behavior of XOR is that it only outputs true when exactly one of the operands is true, reinforcing why it would return false in the case where both are true.