Question5. A recent survey by a Canadian magazine on the contribution of universities to the economy was circulated to 394 people who the magazine decided "are the most likely to know how important universities are to the Canadian economy." Which of the following is the main problem with using these results to draw conclusions about the general public's perception? (a) Insufficient attention to the placebo effect. (b) control group. (c) Lack of random assignment. (d) Lack of random selection. (e) Response bias.
Studdy Solution
STEP 1
What is this asking?
Why can't we trust this magazine survey about how important universities are to the Canadian economy?
Watch out!
Don't get tricked by fancy-sounding statistical terms!
Think about what each answer *really* means.
STEP 2
1. Understand Random Selection
2. Analyze the Survey Flaw
STEP 3
Imagine you want to know how many people in Canada like pineapple on pizza.
You wouldn't just ask your pizza-loving friends, right?
That wouldn't give you a good idea of what *everyone* thinks. **Random selection** means picking people *randomly* from the *entire* group you're interested in (like all of Canada!), so everyone has an equal chance of being chosen.
STEP 4
If you only ask your pizza-loving friends, you're not being random!
You're choosing a specific group, which might have different opinions than the general public.
This is called **selection bias**, where the way you choose your sample makes it unrepresentative of the whole population.
STEP 5
The magazine chose 394 people they thought were "most likely to know how important universities are." This isn't random!
They specifically picked people who they *already think* have a certain opinion.
STEP 6
This means the survey results are probably biased.
The people surveyed are likely to think universities are important to the economy, and this won't reflect the views of the *general public*, which includes people who might not know much about universities or their economic impact.
STEP 7
The problem here is the **lack of random selection**.
They didn't give *everyone* in the general public an equal chance to be part of the survey.
STEP 8
The correct answer is (d).
The survey lacks **random selection**, which makes it unreliable for drawing conclusions about the general public's perception.
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