Question

John conducted a taste test on a new brand of French fries. He gave each participant 5 of the new brand of fries and 5 of the old brand of fries and asked them to rate which brand they preferred. The participants rated both brands of fries as equally preferable. Based on this, he recommended to the manufacturer to move ahead with producing this new brand. However, the brand did not sell well. People reported feeling nauseous after they had consumed a whole portion.

Which validity is weak in this example?

a. internal validity
b. external validity
c. statistical validity
d. construct validity

Answer 1

b. external validity

Explanation:

External Validity is the applicability of the results of an experiment to the real world. Most times, there are threats to the validity of an experiment which could result in little or no effect on the general population. For example, if the method of selection reflects a measure of bias, then this could affect the result. Also if the participants are taking different aspects of the same test, it could also affect its validity as they may not be able to make a correct conclusion. If the sample size is not reflective of the entire population, it could also pose a threat to the validity of the experiment.

John's experiment is weak in its external validity because it cannot be generalized to the entire population of customers. He has to identify the threats to the validity of his experiment and correct them. For example, the sample selection may be biased.