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Why can an easy survey give a misleading answer?

The people easiest to reach may differ from the population you care about.

A convenience sample uses whoever is readily available. It can be quick, but the selection process may leave out people whose views matter. Surveying shoppers already inside a store, for example, says little about people who decided not to visit.

A larger sample does not automatically repair that gap. If the same kind of person keeps being selected, adding more responses can make the estimate more precise for the wrong group. Begin by naming the population, then ask who had a realistic chance to be included.

A small example

A shop asks 200 customers whether they like its opening hours. People unable to visit during those hours cannot answer in the shop.

Keep in mind

Convenience samples can still be useful for exploratory questions when their limits are stated.

Source & attribution

Introductory Statistics 2e — Data, Sampling, and Variation in Data and Sampling

OpenStax contributors · OpenStax, Rice University

CC BY 4.0. Rewritten as a self-contained explanation; the example and activity are Vakataka additions. No source images reproduced.

Source edition: 2024-12-16T15:08:45Z

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