Johannes Hartig wrote:
> I see that the convenient way of collecting data via internet may lead to badly
> designed surveys, and I have seen many of them. But I disagree that collecting
> data online is "easy" or "bad" per se, and IMHO online samples are more
> heterogenous than student samples and therefore offering a chance to get more
> generalizable results in many fields of research than the often used student
> samples.
Just because a sample is more heterogeneous than another sample, that
does not imply that it is in some way better or more representative of a
desired population. A sample of potential voters taken in Midtown
Manhattan may be more heterogeneous than a sample of voters taken inside
the Republican National Headquarters, but I wouldn't use either of them
to predict a national election.
How exactly do you generalize the results from a "sample" of people who
elect to respond to an opinion question, for example at http://cnn.com,
to a larger population?
--
Paige Miller
Eastman Kodak Company
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"It's nothing until I call it!" -- Bill Klem, NL Umpire
"Those black-eyed peas tasted all right to me" -- Dixie Chicks
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