Small student samples made percentage figures misleadingly representative

Evidence

The small size of the sample, 171 subjects, meant that the percentage figures given in the tables sometimes concealed absurdly small real numbers. But when quantitative data were being presented it was impossible to avoid giving the impression that they were representative, and in the spring of 1959 Friedeburg therefore undertook a supplementary study. The research work was carried out by fifty-nine sociology students, who interviewed 550 students using a standardized questionnaire. The supplementary study confirmed that the political tendency aspect of the main study was representative. This did not necessarily imply confirmation that the main study’s results with regard to the distribution of deep-seated political potential were representative. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2351

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Critics charged that sampling only high and low scorers biased the results — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 744; Very low response rates make popular sex surveys misleading

Broader Connections

• Critics charged that sampling only high and low scorers biased the results #exemplifies (0.90) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 744
• Very low response rates make popular sex surveys misleading #exemplifies (0.85)