Author Question: A college department wants to learn about the jobs that its alumni are working in. An online survey ... (Read 66 times)

MGLQZ · **on:** Jul 24, 2018

A college department wants to learn about the jobs that its alumni are working in. An online survey is set up on the department website which invites alumni to complete and includes demographic questions and questions about their job (current and history). Give a problem that can arise with this survey.

Question 2

Explain what is wrong with the following statement: When a survey is mailed out to 500 people and only 150 respond, this results in a bias called response bias..

dellikani2015 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 24, 2018

Answer to Question 1

There are a number of problems that could arise, listed here are a few possible answers. First it is an online survey, thus only those alumni who check this website would potentially be able to respond. It is based on volunteer response and those alum who are not currently working or working in a less prestigious' job would be less inclined to respond.

Answer to Question 2

The resulting bias is non-response. Responding to a survey (or not) is voluntary, and those who respond are likely to have stronger opinions than those who do not respond. This type of non-response bias can lead to systematically overestimating or underestimating the truth about a population.