Worksheet on Sampling and bias Name:

1. Why are random samples important in statistics?

2. Decide whether the following would best be answered using a sample or a

population:
a. How do people in your class feel about a new movie?

b. How do all people who go to the movies feel about a new movie?

c. Is a manufacturer producing defective light bulbs?

d. Does the soup you are making have enough seasoning?

e. Who are voters going to vote for in the next presidential election?

3. Classify the following sampling methods as SRS, stratified, systematic, cluster, or

convenience.
a. To conduct an opinion poll, a random sample of the first three digits of a
phone number were selected and all household with these first three digits
were called

b. To conduct a study of depression among elderly, a sample of 30 patients in

one nursing home was used.

c. To maintain quality in Skittles production, every 100th Skittle coming off

the production line is tasted.

d. Subscribers of a magazine were assigned numbers. Then samples of 30 of

the subscribers were selected using a random number table.

e. A random sample of 10 people from each of three different age categories

were selected and asked how they would rate a new television show.
 4. Give an example of each bias:
a. Undercoverage:

b. Non response:

c. Voluntary response:

d. Wording:

e. Sample selection:

5. The following are survey questions. Comment on each of them. Are they biased?
If so, how?

a) Which of the following best represents your opinion on gun control?

1. The government should confiscate our guns.
2. We have the right to keep and bear arms.
Biased Question? Explain:

b) A freeze in nuclear weapons should be favored because it would begin a

much-needed process to stop everyone in the world from building nuclear
weapons now and reduce the possibility of nuclear war in the future. Do you
agree or disagree?
Biased Question? Explain:

c) In view of escalating environmental degradation and incipient resource

depletion, would you favor economic incentives for recycling of resource-
intensive consumer goods?
Biased Question? Explain:

6. The results of a survey may be very interesting, but before results are accepted, it
is important to consider carefully how the survey was constructed and carried out.
Some questions you should consider are:
Who sponsored? How was the sample selected? How large is the sample?
What was the response rate (what percent of people responded) How were
responses obtained? What were the exact questions asked?
a. Why do you think the answers to the questions above are important?

b. List other information that you think might be important to include in describing the
results of a survey.