ACTIVITY: Response bias

In this activity, your team will design and conduct an experiment to investigate the effects of response bias in surveys. You may choose the topic for your surveys, but you must design your experiment so that it can answer at least one of the following questions:

Can the wording of a question create response bias?

Do the characteristics of the interviewer create response bias?

Does anonymity change the responses to sensitive questions?

Does manipulating the answer choices change the response?

Make up data is acceptable, as long as they are reasonable.

1.Writ e a proposal describing the design of your experiment.Be sure to include

(a) your chosen topic and which of the above questions you'll try to answer.

(b) a detailed description of how you will obtain your subjects (minimum of 50). Your plan must be practical!

(c) what your questions will be and how they will be asked.

(d) a clear explanation of how you will implement your design.

(e) precautions you will take to collect data ethically.

"Do you find females who wear makeup attractive?" (questioner wearing makeup: 75% answered yes)

"Do you find females who wear makeup attractive?" (questioner not wearing makeup: 30% answered yes)

"Do you watch cartoons?" (90% answered yes)

"Do youstillwatch cartoons?" (60% answered yes)

2.Record your data in a table.

3.Analyz e your data. What conclusion do you draw? Provide appropriate graphical and numerical evidence to support your answer.

4.Prepar e a report that includes the data you collected, your analysis from Step 3, and a discussion of any problems you encountered and how you dealt with them.

Response Bias 4 = Complete 3 = Substantial 2 = Developing 1 = Minimal Project Describes the context of the research Introduces the context of Introduces the Briefly Has a clearly stated question of interest the research and has a context of the describes the . Provides a hypothesis about the answer to the specific question of interest research and has a context of the Introduction question of interest Suggests hypothesis OR specific question of research Question of interest is of appropriate difficulty has appropriate difficulty interest OR has question of interest and a hypothesis Method of data collection is clearly described Method of data collection Method of data Some evidence Includes appropriate randomization is clearly described collection is of data Describes efforts to reduce bias, variability, Some effort is made to described collection Data Collection confounding incorporate principles of Some effort is made Quantity of data collected is appropriate good data collection to incorporate Quantity of data collected principles of good is appropriate data collection Raw data is included in a two-way table Appropriate graphs are Graphs and Graphs or categorical) or in lists (quantitative) included summary statistics summary Appropriate graphs are included Graphs are neat, clearly are included statistics are Graphs and Graphs are neat, easy to compare, and clearly labeled, and easy to included Summary labeled, including clear identification of compare Statistics reatments Appropriate summary Appropriate summary statistics are included in statistics or raw data are discussion (e.g., percentages for categorical data, included means for quantitative data) Uses the results of the study to correctly answer Makes a correct conclusion Makes a partially Makes a question of interest Discusses what inferences correct conclusion conclusion Conclusions Discusses what inferences are appropriate based are appropriate or shows Shows some on study design good evidence of critical evidence of critical Shows good evidence of critical reflection reflection reflection (discusses possible errors, limitations, etc.) Has a clear, holistic understanding of the project Has a clear, holistic The poster and oral Communication Poster, Poster is well organized, neat, and easy to read understanding of the presentation have and Presentation, & Poster included pictures of data collection in project, but poster is several problems organization are Communication progress and is visually appealing unorganized, lacks visual poor Oral presentation is well organized appeal, or oral presentation is not organized *Note: It is possible to receive a score of 0 in any of the categories