Question

Determine whether the sampling method appears to be sound or is flawed.

Nuclear Power Plants. In a survey of 1368 subjects, the following question was posted on the USA Today website: “In your view, are nuclear plants safe?” The survey subjects were Internet users who chose to respond to the question posted on the electronic edition of USA Today.

Short answer

The sampling method is flawed.

Step-by-step solution

Given information

• The survey question enquires whether nuclear plants are safe or not.

• The number of subjects who took the survey was 1368.

• The respondents were net users who self-participated in the survey. The question of the survey was published in the electronic edition (website) of USA Today.

Explain the sampling method

The survey comprises the responses from subjects (participants of the study) who volunteered to answer the questions on the internet. Thus, the sampling method is volunteer sampling.

Moreover, the responses were taken only from those readers who read the electronic edition of USA Today.

Explain if the sampling method is flawed or sound

The volunteer response sampling is a biased method as the subjects do not represent the entire population.

The sampling must be done randomly to derive accurate results in the study.

Thus, the sampling method is flawed.