Question

Suppose that one day you read a news story reporting that result of a survey indicate that 40% of women and 30% of men have little or no interest in sex . How could you use critical thinking to interpret this report? What kinds of questions would you ask about the source of the data, the way the study was conducted ,and the background of the participants?

Answer 1

From a statistical standpoint, based on the result of the survey reported by the news story a considerable or significant percentage or proportion of both genders have an aversion towards conjugal engagement as indicated by the survey result that 40% of women and 30% of men have a general avesion towards conjugal engagement. Although, based on the survey result it can be reasonably inferred that majority of both genders think otherwise, but 40% and 30% respectively are still significant percentages considering the number of survey participants or sample size used in the survey. Now, since the source of this data or the agency conducting the survey study has not been mentioned in the news report, it would be prudent to question the legitimacy or the validity of the data source of survey agency, in this particular case. It is important or essential to know whether the organization or agency publishing the data or the survey data is a public agency affiliated with any government ministry or department or a private organization conducting an independent empirical study and in both cases, the main objective/s or goal/s of this study has/have to be carefully examined or analyzed. Furthermore, in order to appropriately evaluate the transparency and biasedness of the study, it is also imperative to find out whether the study has been independently funded or financed by any external organization or agency which can practically influence the biasedness of the study and its outcome. Therefore, any such direct and/or indirect external involvement or influence in the study can jeopardize the statistical conclusions or results of the study. To examine the methodological efficieny and accuracy of the survey, in this case, it is also relevant to check the particular study method used to determine the public opinion on the concerned study topic on the basis of gender. For example, direct study or survey methods such as direct public interviews, observational methods, social experiments, filling out paper questionnaires would evidently yield much different results or outcome compared to indirect study or study methods such as online surveys, social-media surveys or studies, mail surveys, etc. It has been widely observed by many statistical and empirical researchers that responses to any empirical study or survey would actually vary depending on the respective survey or study methods as different study or survey methods can psychologically impact the participants or sample in different ways. Moreover, in this context, it is also essential to check and analyze the various demographic composition and charcteretistics of the survey participants or sample as all these factors can also affect te survey results or public opinion on any research topic thereby influencing the skewness and biasedness of the results or outcomes. For example, in this case, the urban participants in the survey would expectedly have a different opinion and perception about the concerned topic compared to their rural counterparts. Additionally, higher income group people or participants would also expectedly have different opinion on conjugal engagement compared to the middle income and lower income counterparts. In this context, the social background of the participants or saple included in the survey would also have an expected impact on the survey result or outcome considering the concerned survey topic. Hence, while examining the accuracy and validity of any empirical study or statistical survey it is essential to carefully examine or evaluate the various demographic features and characteristics of the sample orparticipants chosen for the study or survey.