Bias AP Stats

A radio station is discussing a controversial policy enacted by the local police department. They poll listeners by having them call in to the radio station. Which of the following is the most significant source of bias?

• Leading questions on the survey

• Voluntary Response Bias

• Survivorship Bias

• Undercoverage

A company wants to know the opinion of a rural community on a proposed ballot initiative. Half of the community does not have internet access, so the company sends emails to the 380 members that do have internet access. Of those surveyed, 372 of the community members responded to the survey. Which of the following is the most significant source of bias in the survey?

• Voluntary Response Bias

• Undercoverage

• Nonresponse Bias

• Response Bias

Dylan wants to know how the students at his school rate the cafeteria.  He surveyed his school's basketball team to rate the school cafeteria. Is this a biased sample of the school's population?

• Yes, because it is a convenience survey

• No, the basketball team has the smartest students

• Yes, because it's voluntary survey

• No, he should have asked the football team

16 out of the 20 people who called into a radio station said that they enjoy the station's morning programming. What type of bias is demonstrated here?

• Voluntary Response Bias

• Nonresponse Bias

• Undercoverage Bias

Tanya wants to know the percent of people likely to attend the upcoming musical at school. She asks each person in the musical how many people they know who are coming to make a prediction. Why is this sample biased?

• Drama students are more likely to lie.

• Musicals are better attended than plays.

• The drama teacher was not asked.

• The sample is not random and not representative of the entire school population.

Answer explanation

The sample is not random and not representative of the entire school population, as it only includes people involved in the musical, leading to bias.

The School Dance Committee conducts a survey to find what type of music students would like to hear at the next dance. Which sampling method is least likely to result in a biased sample?

• Call the top 20% of the senior class. 

• Interview every 10^th student as they enter the school.

• Ask every 5^th person leaving a school jazz band concert.

• Set up a hip-hop only website where students can list their 3 favorite songs if they open up the link.

In order to estimate the proportion of students that text while driving, a school administrator selects a simple random sample of students from a list of all students at the school who have parking permits. The students are called to the office, one at a time. The administrator asks each student, “Do you text while driving, even though you are not supposed to?” Based on the survey, the administrator estimates that only 2% of students with parking passes text while driving. What potential bias is present in the design of this survey and what is the likely direction of the bias?

• The sample proportion is likely an underestimate of the population proportion due to response bias.

• The sample proportion is likely an underestimate of the population proportion due to undercoverage.

• The sample proportion is likely an underestimate of the population proportion due to nonresponse.

• The sample proportion is likely an overestimate of the population proportion due to response bias.

• The sample proportion is likely an overestimate of the population proportion due to undercoverage.

Volunteers for a politician's campaign called 100 randomly selected citizens to conduct a survey. Only 50 people agreed to answer the survey questions, and most of them were supporters of the candidate. This is an example of...

• Voluntary Response Bias

• Nonresponse Bias

• Undercoverage Bias

Determine if the following study is biased.

A senator wants to how she is doing. She sends a survey to 1000 registered voters in her party.

• Biased

• Unbiased

The expected winnings for a particular carnival game is $50 with a standard deviation of $24.  Because few people are playing the game, the owner of this carnival booth decides to double the winnings and reduce the price to play by $2.  What are the new expected winnings and standard deviation?

• E(X) = $100  SD(X) = $48

• E(X) = $98   SD(X) = $46

• E(X) = $102   SD(X) = $48

• E(X) = $100  SD(X) = $46