A newspaper reports: 'A survey of 2,000 visitors to a ski resort found that 85% of them enjoy winter, so most people in the country enjoy winter.' Which of the following best explains why the conclusion is not justified?

Question

Accepted Answer

A. The people surveyed were drawn from a group likely to differ from the general population in the very characteristic being measured.. People at a ski resort chose to be somewhere cold; they are far more likely than average to enjoy winter. The sample is biased with respect to exactly what the survey measures, so it says nothing reliable about the country as a whole.

Answer

B. A sample of 2,000 people is too small to support any conclusion about a country. — 2,000 is a perfectly adequate sample size. The problem is WHO was sampled, not how many.

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C. Surveys about personal preferences can never support conclusions about a population. — Surveys of preferences can support population conclusions when the sample is representative. This one isn't.

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D. The result should have been reported with a margin of error of zero. — A margin of error of zero is impossible for a sample, and reporting one wouldn't fix a biased sample.

Problem-Solving and Data Analysis practice question

Answer: A. The people surveyed were drawn from a group likely to differ from the general population in the very characteristic being measured.

Why the other answers are wrong

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