Question

A restaurant wants to determine how much their customers like the dinner specials prepared by the new restaurant chef. Which survey method is most likely to lead to response bias?

A. Leave survey sheets on each table for customers to complete after their dining experience.
B. Create a survey and post it on the restaurant’s social media page.
C. Mail a survey to all households in a 10-mile radius of the restaurant.
D. Create a survey that is administered by the waitstaff prior to the customer leaving the restaurant.

Answer 1

Option D, where the waitstaff administers surveys before the customer leaves, is most prone to response bias as customers may feel pressured to give positive feedback in person.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question concerns the effectiveness of different survey methods in avoiding response bias when assessing customers' opinions on a restaurant's dinner specials. Among the options provided, the survey method most likely to lead to response bias is the one where surveys are administered by the waitstaff before customers leave the restaurant.

This method can pressure customers into providing positive feedback due to the personal interaction and potential discomfort of giving negative responses in front of the staff who provided the service. On the contrary, leaving survey sheets on tables, posting surveys on social media, and mailing surveys to nearby households allow for more anonymous and likely honest responses. These methods do not involve direct interpersonal pressure and therefore reduce the likelihood of response bias.