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Determine if the questions are biased or unbiased?

1) What kind of healthy toppings do you like on
pizza?
2) If money was not an issue, where would you
most like go on vacation?
3) You want to find out how much time people in your town spend doing volunteer
work. You call 100 homes (not cell phones) in the community during the day. Of
those surveyed, 85% are over the age of 65. Explain how this might create bias in
your survey results.
Your answer
4) Mr. Gonzalez wants to determine if his math class is too hard so he decided to go
asks the students taking AP Physic and AP Calculus if Integrated 3 was difficult. Is
this sample biased?

2 Answers

5 votes

Final answer:

  1. The question "What kind of healthy toppings do you like on pizza?" is unbiased. It doesn't seem to favor any particular response or group.
  2. The question "If money was not an issue, where would you most like to go on vacation?" is biased. It assumes that money is the only limiting factor for vacation choices, which may not be true for everyone.
  3. The survey question about volunteer work may be biased. Calling only homes during the day and having 85% of respondents over the age of 65 could introduce bias, as it may not accurately represent the entire community, especially if younger individuals are more likely to be at work or school during the day.
  4. Mr. Gonzalez's approach to ask students taking AP Physics and AP Calculus about the difficulty of Integrated 3 may introduce bias. The sample is biased because it only includes students taking advanced math classes, and their perspective may not be representative of the entire math class.

Step-by-step explanation:

Assessing whether questions are biased or unbiased helps to ensure the reliability and validity of survey results. The first question, "What kind of healthy toppings do you like on pizza?" presupposes that the respondent likes healthy toppings and thus is a biased question. The second question, "If money was not an issue, where would you most like to go on vacation?" does not assume any particular answer and is therefore unbiased.

Regarding the call survey bias, calling only homes with landlines during the day may lead to an oversampling of individuals who are retired or who do not work conventional hours, such as the 85% over the age of 65 from the survey, hence it is a biased sampling method. Mr. Gonzalez's method of asking AP Physics and AP Calculus students about the difficulty of Integrated 3 is also a biased sample, as it only includes students enrolled in advanced classes who may not be representative of the general student body.

User Kalithlev
by
7.6k points
5 votes

Final answer:

The questions are determined to be biased, unbiased, and biased respectively. The sample in question is biased.

Step-by-step explanation:

1) The question 'What kind of healthy toppings do you like on pizza?' can be considered unbiased as it does not favor any particular answer. It allows for a variety of responses.

2) The question 'If money was not an issue, where would you most like to go on vacation?' can be considered unbiased as it does not impose any limitations or preferences. It allows respondents to freely express their desired vacation destinations.

3) The question 'You want to find out how much time people in your town spend doing volunteer work. You call 100 homes (not cell phones) in the community during the day. Of those surveyed, 85% are over the age of 65.' creates bias in the survey results because it predominantly includes responses from individuals over the age of 65. This age group may not be representative of the entire population in terms of volunteer work.

4) The sample in question is biased. By asking only students taking AP Physics and AP Calculus if Integrated 3 was difficult, the sample does not represent the entire math class. This sample excludes students who are not taking those advanced courses, potentially skewing the results.

User Areke
by
7.2k points