Q. 13 - The Practice of Statistics for AP

Question

The news article goes on to say: “The theoretical errors do not take into account a margin of additional error resulting from the various practical difficulties in taking any survey of public opinion.” List some of the “practical difficulties” that may cause errors in addition to the $\pm 3$ percentage point margin of error. Pay particular attention to the news article’s description of the sampling method. 

Step-by-Step Solution

Answer

The practical difficulty is " Nonresponse bias is the result of not having data for everybody in the sample ".

Step 1: Given Information

The theoretical errors do not take into account a margin of additional error resulting from the various practical difficulties in taking any survey of public opinion. 

Step 2: Explanation

Some of the practical difficulties:

Selection bias will exclude part of the population

Measurement of response bias will use a method that gives different values from the true value

Nonresponse bias is the result of not having data for everybody in the sample.