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Chapter 1: Problem 21

With the increasing popularity of online shopping, many consumers use Internet access at work to browse and shop online. In fact, the Monday after Thanksgiving has been nicknamed "Cyber Monday" because of the large increase in online purchases that occurs that day. Data from a large-scale survey by a market research firm (Detroit Free Press, November 26,2005\()\) were used to calculate estimates of the percentage of men and women who shop online while at work. The resulting estimates probably won't make most employers happy \(-42 \%\) of the men and \(32 \%\) of the women surveyed were shopping online at work! If the population of interest is working men and women, does the group of people surveyed represent a census or a sample? Are the percentages quoted (42\% for men and \(32 \%\) for women) statistics or population characteristics?

Short Answer

Expert verified
The group of people surveyed represents a 'sample' and not a 'census', and the percentages quoted (42% for men and 32% for women) are 'statistics' and not population characteristics.

Step by step solution

01

Understanding the terms

A 'sample' refers to a subset of a larger group, or population, that is selected for observation. In contrast, a 'census' refers to an analysis that includes every member of the population. 'Statistics' are numeric values that describe attributes of a sample, while 'population characteristics' are actual percentages or ratios that represent attributes of an entire population.
02

Determining if it鈥檚 a sample or a census

The research firm surveyed a large group of working men and women, and they certainly did not survey every single working man and woman. Therefore, the group of people surveyed represents a 'sample' and not a 'census'.
03

Determining if they are statistics or population characteristics

The percentages quoted (42% for men and 32% for women) are based on the sample surveyed, not the entire population. They are 'statistics' because they are derived from the sample to describe specific attributes of it, and not confirmed attributes of the entire population.

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Key Concepts

These are the key concepts you need to understand to accurately answer the question.

Census
A census involves collecting data from every member of a specified population. Imagine wanting to know how many people in a town own a dog. If you conduct a census, you would ask every single person in that town about dog ownership.
This method gives you the most accurate and comprehensive data possible. The advantage is that you get a complete picture with no guesswork. However, a census can be time-consuming, costly, and sometimes impractical, especially if the population is vast or challenging to access.
In the context of the exercise, conducting a census of all working men and women to find out who shops online at work would mean reaching out to every working individual, which is not feasible for most research efforts.
Sample
A sample is a smaller group selected from a larger population, intended to represent the entire group. Researchers use samples because they are often more practical, quicker, and less expensive than conducting a census.
When a sample is well-chosen, it can provide insights about the whole population without needing to survey everyone. To decide if the survey results in the exercise represent a sample, consider how the market research surveyed only a subset of all working men and women.
This subset, or sample, provides enough information to derive conclusions about online shopping habits without interviewing every working individual. It is crucial, however, that the sample is representative of the population, reducing biases and ensuring accurate results.
Population Characteristics
Population characteristics refer to true values or descriptions of an entire population, like actual heights, ages, or behavioral tendencies of all individuals within a group. If you know without doubt that 40% of a population does something, that is a population characteristic.
These characteristics provide a definitive understanding but are often difficult to determine unless carried out by a full census.
In our exercise, the percentages of 42% and 32% could be considered population characteristics if they represented the definitive online shopping trends of all working men and women, which they don't. Instead, they are statistics based on the surveyed sample, providing insights but not the complete picture of population characteristics.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

The Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London found that dealing with "infomania" has a temporary, but significant, negative effect on IQ (Discover, November 2005). To reach this conclusion, researchers divided volunteers into two groups. Each subject took an IQ test. One group had to check e-mail and respond to instant messages while taking the test, and the other group took the test without any distraction. The distracted group had an average score that was 10 points lower than the average for the control group. Explain why it is important that the researchers use random assignment to create the two experimental groups.

The article "Super Bowls: Serving Bowl Size and Food Consumption" (Journal of the American Medical Association [2005]: 1727-1728) describes an experiment investigating how the size of serving bowls influences the amount a person eats. In this experiment, graduate students at a university were recruited to attend a Super Bowl party. The paper states that as the students arrived, they were "led in an alternating order to one of two identical buffet tables on opposite sides of an adjoining room. The tables had identical amounts of snacks, such as nuts, pretzels, and chips. All of the snacks contained approximately the same number of calories per gram. On one of the tables the snacks were set out in large serving bowls and on the second table the snacks were set out in smaller serving bowls. The students were given a plate and invited to serve themselves before going to another room to watch the game. When they arrived at the game room, their plates were weighed and the number of calories in the food on the plate was estimated." The researchers concluded that serving bowl size does make a difference, with those using large serving bowls tending to take more food. a. Do you think that the alternate assignment to the experimental groups (large serving bowls, small serving bowls) based on arrival time is "close enough" to random assignment? That is, do you think it would tend to create comparable experimental groups? b. In this study, the research assistant who weighed the plates and estimated the calorie content of the food on the plate was blinded as to which experimental group the plate belonged to and was also blinded as to the purpose of the experiment. Why do you think the researchers chose to incorporate this type of blinding?

Researchers at the University of Utah carried out a study to see if the size of the fork used to eat dinner has an effect on how much food is consumed (Food Network Magazine, January 2012). The researchers assigned people to one of two groups. One group ate dinner using a small fork, and the other group ate using a large fork. The researchers found that those who ate with a large fork ate less of the food on the plate than those who ate with the small fork. The title of the article describing this study was "Dieters Should Use a Big Fork." This title implies a cause-andeffect relationship between fork size and amount eaten and also generalizes this finding to the population of dieters. What would you need to know about the study design to determine if the conclusions implied by the headline are reasonable?

The same article referenced in Exercise 1.13 also described a study which concluded that people tend to respond differently to the following questions: Question 1: Would you rather have \(\$ 50\) today or \(\$ 52\) in a week? Question 2 : Imagine that you could have \(\$ 52\) in a week. Would you rather have \(\$ 50\) now?

The article "Display of Health Risk Behaviors on MySpace by Adolescents" (Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine [2009]: \(27-34\) ) described a study in which researchers looked at a random sample of 500 publicly accessible MySpace web profiles posted by 18-year-olds. The content of each profile was analyzed. One of the conclusions reported was that displaying sport or hobby involvement was associated with decreased references to risky behavior (sexual references or references to substance abuse or violence). a. Is it reasonable to generalize the stated conclusion to all 18-year-olds with a publicly accessible MySpace web profile? What aspect of the study supports your answer? b. Not all MySpace users have a publicly accessible profile. Is it reasonable to generalize the stated conclusion to all 18-year-old MySpace users? Explain. c. Is it reasonable to generalize the stated conclusion to all MySpace users with a publicly accessible profile? Explain.
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