Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
Response Bias Project
Introduction
My chosen topic for the response bias project is about the selection of organic foods vs inorganic foods. The type of response bias I will try to illustrate with my project is the wording of a question. I got the list of students, a total of 294 people, in the entire senior class. I used a random number generator to generate 60 of the students so I can separate them into two groups with SRS of 30 students.
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The first 30 numbers, will be grouped into A, my control group. They will be asked about the unbiased question.
The second 30 numbers, will be grouped into B, my treatment group. They will be asked about the heavily biased question.
My hypothesis for this wording bias is that it would raise the number of Yes response to the biased question.
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The first 30 numbers, will be grouped into A, my control group. They will be asked about the unbiased question.
The second 30 numbers, will be grouped into B, my treatment group. They will be asked about the heavily biased question.
My hypothesis for this wording bias is that it would raise the number of Yes response to the biased question.
Data Collection
I generated a one question survey on surveymonkey and asked the two groups the following questions:
- Group A received a survey as shown:
- Group B received a similar (biased) survey as shown:
Results (Graphs and Summary Statistics)
In Group A, which was asked about the unbiased question about preference over expensive organic foods, there were 19 students (63% of Group A) who answered Yes and 11 students (37%) who answered No.
In Group B, the question asked was aiming toward a wording bias to get students to answer Yes to the question. There were 24 students (80% of Group B) who answered Yes and only 6 students (20%) who answered No.
In Group B, the question asked was aiming toward a wording bias to get students to answer Yes to the question. There were 24 students (80% of Group B) who answered Yes and only 6 students (20%) who answered No.
Conclusion
The results have shown that the biased question had influenced the students to more likely answer Yes when asked if they prefer expensive organic products. From the control group A to experimental group B, the number of yes responses increased by 5 students. The wording of the question, along with the more detailed explanation that expensive organic foods contain fewer artificial ingredients that could be harmful to our bodies, created a response bias for Group B (6 students out of 30 answered No) in comparison to Group A, in which 11 students out of the 30 have answered No.