Question

A researcher plans to investigate students' responses to the new curriculum requirements. As he conducts his surveys, he approaches only male students. However, he publishes his findings implying that the whole campus embraces this view. This research error is an example of __________.

Answer 1

The research error described above is an example of selection bias.

Selection bias takes place when, from a population of interest, a group of individuals is selected in order to construct a sample but without a proper randomization. The result is a sample which is not representative of the underlying population.

According to the example, the target population of the research comprises all students but the sample only includes boys. Hence, selection has not been random because it followed a gender criteria, and the results obtained using it cannot be applicable to the whole population because they are affected by a selection bias.