Question

In order to understand more about how people in the United States feel about the outcome of a recent criminal trial in which the defendant was found not guilty, a local television news program invites its viewers to visit the program's website
and share their opinion. By the end of the show, 522 people had voted in the poll, and 82% of respondents indicated they were unhappy with the verdict. Is the described sampling method likely to be biased? If so, identify the likely direction of the bias, and explain how a better sample could be obtained.

Answer 1

Answer:

The sampling method described is likely to be biased.

Explanation:

The survey shown above is a survey classified as a voluntary response survey. This type of research tends to have a strong statistical bias, especially when the answer involves personal opinions of the individuals who are answering the question. This is because this type of research, when a simple random sample is not established, tends to attract people with negative opinions on the topic.

Ideally, the program should have carried out a simple random sample, selecting viewers at random to respond to the survey.