A radio talk show invites listeners to enter a dispute about a proposed pay incr
ID: 3131658 • Letter: A
Question
A radio talk show invites listeners to enter a dispute about a proposed pay increase for city council members. "What yearly pay do you think council members should get? Call us with your number." In all, 958 people call. The mean pay they suggest is x = $9740 per year, and the standard deviation of the responses is s = $1125. For a large sample such as this, s is very close to the unknown population. The station calculates the 95% confidence interval for the mean pay that all citizens would propose for council members to be $9669 to $9811. Is this result trustworthy?
Explanation / Answer
This result may not be trustworthy as we only get to sample those who are available to call, and has the means to call (Ex. has a phone with sufficient credits). Hence, it is not a simple random sample.
Hence, this result may not be trustworthy due to reasons like these.