In: Statistics and Probability
What is the source of bias in each of the following situations the sample suffers from and why?
a) A health survey was conducted among households in a community that were selected at random from the telephone directory. In this community, 4% of households have no telephone and another 35% have unlisted telephone numbers.
b) Respondents to a lifestyle survey may not truthfully answer a question on the use of illegal drugs.
c) A researcher is interested in studying the natural behavior of chimpanzee. Initially the chimps would flee at the sight of him and he had to observe them from a distance with binoculars. But he persisted until the animals eventually got accustomed enough to him to ignore him.
a) The sample of households that were selected randomly from the telephone directly suffers from undercoverage bias as the population from which the sample is taken does not have those households who do not have a telephone or have unlisted telephone numbers. Hence, this is a convenience sample and it faces undercoverage.
b) If the respondents to a lifestyle survey might not truthfully answer a question on the use of illegal drugs, then incorrect response bias will occur. This happens in sensitive or personal issues where the person does not want to reveal the truth and intentionally gives a untruthful answer to the survey. This leads to the biasedness in the sample
c) When the chimpanzees observe the researcher observing them, they do not behave naturally. Hence, this bias occurs when there is a external moderator/observer present and the study is conducted, this leads to different results as the respondents are more careful or do not behave naturally. This sample suffers from this bias.