Question

On January 2, 2008, the American Idol website (www .americanidol) conducted an online poll that asked respondents which contestant they liked best among six former contestants. To become part of the sample, respondents simply clicked on a response. Of the 941,434 responses to this poll, 55% voted for Clay Aiken. We can conclude that _________________________________ .

a. the sample is too small.
b. a fraction of the millions of people who watched the TV show to draw any conclusion.
c. most Americans prefer Clay Aiken out of those former contestants.
d. the poll uses voluntary response, so the results tell us little about the population of all adults.

Answer 1

Online Poll

We can conclude that

c. most Americans prefer Clay Aiken out of those former contestants.

Explanation:

Sample responses received from the poll = 941,434

Proportion of voters for Clay Aiken = 55%

Computed proportion of voters for the other 5 contestants = 45% (100% - 55%)

This gives an average of 7.5% (45%/5) for the other 5 contestants.

Therefore, the conclusion is that "most Americans prefer Clay Aiken out of those former contestants" in the American Idol contest.