Question

A team of journalists has decided to take a survey asking a group of 100 people whether herbal supplements help to alleviate symptoms of depression. The survey asks participants about their own personal experiences with herbal supplements. Would the results of the journalists' survey be considered "reliable" and prove that herbal supplements either alleviate or have no effect on symptoms of depression?

Answer 1

Answer:

No

Explanation:

The journalists asked people about their own personal experience with herbal supplements, therefore, it relies on what people say and on their anecdotal evidence.

We say that a research is reliable if the method used produces stable and consistent results. In other words, if we apply the same method on similar objects/subjects it will produce the same results.

In this example, this survey is based on the participants "own experiences" and therefore the journalists shouldn't be able to reliable conclude anything that actually establishes a relation between herbal supplements and depression. They would need a hypothesis, a control case study and more controlled observations rather than a survey.