Question

A researcher is responding to a news article saying that the article suffered from sampling bias. the article in question was about finding out what the voters in tucson thought about a recent bond initiative for a renovation project in downtown area. the news outlet stated they surveyed workers in the downtown area of tucson. what does the researcher mean that it "suffered from sampling bias"?

Answer 1

Sampling bias occurs when some members of a population are systematically more likely to be selected in a sample than others.

Sampling bias limits the generalisability of findings because it is a threat to external validity, specifically population validity. In other words, findings from biased samples can only be generalised to populations that share characteristics with the sample.

The news outlet said they surveyed the workers (only) and not the entire Tucson population, hence the sampling bias.