2nd Edition

ISBN: 9780077836351

Author: Author

Publisher: McGraw Hill

Concept explainers

A new framework of data analysis where the new statistical methods are used for interpreting the results and analyzing the data is known as estimation in statistics.

Videos

Textbook Question

Chapter 1.4, Problem 21E

Literary Digest poll: In the 1936 presidential election, Republican candidate Alf Landon challenged President Franklin Roosevelt. The Literary Digest magazine conducted a poll in which they mailed questionnaires to more than 10 million voters. The people who received the questionnaires were drawn from lists of automobile owners and people with telephones. The magazine received 2.3 million responses, and predicted that Landon would win the election in a landslide with 57% of the vote. In fact, Roosevelt won in a landslide with 62% of the vote. Soon afterward, the Literary Digest folded.

In 1936 most people did not own automobiles, and many did not have telephones. Explain how this could have caused the results of the poll to be mistaken.
What can be said about the response rate? Explain how this could have caused the results of the poll to be mistaken.
The Literary Digest believed that its poll would be accurate, because it received 2.3 million responses, which is a very large number. Explain how the poll could be wrong, even with such a large sample.

Expert Solution & Answer

Want to see the full answer?

Check out a sample textbook solution

See solution

Chapter 1.4, Problem 20E

Chapter 1, Problem 1CQ

Students have asked these similar questions

In advance of the 1936 Presidential Election, a magazine titled Literary Digest released the results of an opinion poll predicting that the republican candidate Alf Landon would win by a large margin. The magazine sent post cards to approximately 10,000,000 prospective voters. These prospective voters were selected from the subscription list of the magazine, from automobile registration lists, from phone lists, and from club membership lists. Approximately 2,300,000 people returned the postcards. Think about the state of the United States in 1936. Explain why a sample chosen from magazine subscription lists, automobile registration lists, phone books, and club membership lists was not representative of the population of the United States at that time. What effect does the low response rate have on the reliability of the sample? Are these problems examples of sampling error or nonsampling error? During the same year, George Gallup conducted his own poll of 30,000 prospective…

Jane and Sam work in the same department for a large corporation. They are curious about the proportion of their coworkers who have children. Jane obtains a list of all the workers in the department, randomly picks 20 names from the list, and asks those coworkers if they have children. She finds that 72% of those surveyed have children. Sam waits in the break room one morning and asks the first 20 coworkers that pass by if they have children. He finds that 85% of those surveyed have children. Which result is the better estimate of the proportion of coworkers who have children? Question 1 options: 72% Both results are equally good estimates Neither result is a good estimate 85%

Chapter 1 Solutions

Elementary Statistics (Text Only)

Knowledge Booster

$Statistics$

Learn more about

Need a deep-dive on the concept behind this application? Look no further. Learn more about this topic, statistics and related others by exploring similar questions and additional content below.

Solution Summary: The author explains that the magazine conducted a poll with more than 10 million questionnaires, but the sample received response are only 2.3 million.

Concept explainers

Videos

Want to see the full answer?

Chapter 1 Solutions