Examkin

Question

Difficulty: HardSampling and Survey Flaws

City councilor: We recently distributed a survey to individuals holding annual vehicle registration passes in the metropolitan area to measure support for expanding the car-free downtown plazas. Of the thousands who mailed back their responses, an overwhelming majority indicated they fiercely oppose expanding the plazas. Consequently, we can safely conclude that the wider public does not want the car-free plazas to be expanded.

Which one of the following most accurately describes a flaw in the city councilor's reasoning?

  1. A
    It confuses the proportion of respondents who hold a specific view with the absolute number of people in the overall population who hold that view.
  2. B
    It infers a causal relationship between participating in the survey and opposing the plazas on the basis of a mere correlation.
  3. It bases a generalization about a population on a sample that is systematically predisposed to hold a particular view on the issue in question.Answer
  4. D
    It deduces that because a majority of the survey respondents opposed the policy, every resident of the metropolitan area must be against it.
  5. E
    It relies on an ambiguous interpretation of what constitutes fierce opposition as opposed to merely not wanting a policy.

Answer

The correct answer identifies that the argument bases a generalization about a population on a sample that is systematically predisposed to hold a particular view on the issue in question.
The city councilor concludes that the 'wider public' opposes the plazas based entirely on a survey sent only to individuals with vehicle registration passes. People who own and drive vehicles are uniquely disadvantaged by car-free plazas because they lose driving space and parking access. Therefore, their views are highly unlikely to be representative of the general population, which includes pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit users. The argument is fundamentally flawed because it relies on an unrepresentative, systematically biased sample.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the conclusion and the premise of the argument.
Conclusion: The wider public does not want the car-free plazas expanded. Premise: An overwhelming majority of surveyed vehicle registration pass holders oppose the expansion.
Breaking the argument down into its structural components makes it easier to evaluate the relationship between the provided evidence and the final claim.
2
Evaluate the relationship between the sample group and the target population.
The sample consists exclusively of vehicle registration pass holders (car owners), while the conclusion makes a sweeping claim about the 'wider public'.
In any survey-based argument, the sample must be sufficiently representative of the target population for the conclusion to logically follow.
3
Identify any inherent bias in the sample regarding the specific issue.
Car owners are directly negatively impacted by car-free plazas due to a loss of driving and parking access. Thus, they are structurally more likely to oppose the policy than non-drivers.
If the sample group has a vested interest or systematic bias that differs from the general population, the survey results cannot be reliably projected onto everyone else.

Key Concept

Sampling Bias (Unrepresentative Sample)
Rate this question

Topics

Sampling and Survey Flaws

More questions from this topic