Question

Wearing a Uniform to Work The website fox6now.com held an online poll in June 2015 asking "What do you think about the concept of having an everyday uniform for work, like Steve Jobs did?" Of the people who answered the question, \(24 \%\) said they loved the idea, \(58 \%\) said they hated the idea, and \(18 \%\) said that they already wore a uniform to work. (a) Are the people who answered the poll likely to be representative of all adult workers? Why or why not? (b) Is it reasonable to generalize this result and estimate that \(24 \%\) of all adult workers would like to wear a uniform to work?

Short answer

The answer to whether those who responded to the poll are representative of all adult workers largely depends on how the poll was conducted, who were surveyed, how they were chosen, and the sample size. It's unclear based on the provided information. Similarly, it is also dependent on representativeness and accurate extrapolation to confidently generalize that 24% of all adult workers would prefer to wear uniforms. Without such information, it's imprudent to form such a generalization.

Step-by-step solution

Determining Representativeness

To answer whether the people who responded to the poll are likely representative of all adult workers, some factors need to be considered. These factors include who the poll's participants were, how they were selected, what the sample size was, whether the participants accurately reflect the diversity of the worker population, etc. If the sample is not diverse or large enough, it can't be considered representative of all adult workers.

Evaluating the Generalizability

For generalizing this result to estimate that about 24% of all adult workers would like to wear a uniform to work, one needs to consider if the sample used in the poll is representative as discussed in the previous step. If the sample is representative, it could be reasonable to generalize but with some uncertainty and errors. However, if it's not representative, generalizing the results wouldn't be statistically sound.