Lashonda lives in a town of 3100 people. She works for the mayor's office and wants to see if there is support for spending town funds on renovating the old
theater. She takes out advertisements in the local newspaper and on the local TV news, asking town residents to meet at the park next Monday afternoon to
discuss this question.
Are you in favor of, or do you oppose, the town spending money to renovate the old theater?
There were 64 residents who showed up at the park. Of these, 53 said they oppose spending money to renovate the old theater.
(a) Identify and describe the most prominent source of bias in Lashonda's study.
Choose the best answer from the choices below.
A) The bias comes from the phrasing of the question and the context in which it is asked. The responses are unlikely
to be truthful.
B)The bias comes from the sampling done in the study. Lashonda only sampled from residents of the town, so the
sample is a sample of convenience.
C)The bias comes from the fact that the residents voluntarily chose to be in the sample by showing up to the park.
Volunteers are likely to have characteristics that do not reflect the population as a whole.
D)The bias comes from having too many of the residents who showed up to the park who did not respond to the
question. These residents might answer the question differently than those who did.
E) There is no or very little bias in Lashonda's study. The sample size is larger than 30, so it is large enough to
eliminate any potential source of bias.