Pete is conducting a survey to determine his customers’ overall satisfaction about the quality of his company’s products. He sends out surveys to the 5 customers who have purchased the largest number of items over the past year. Are his results likely to be representative of the population he is trying to analyze? Explain.

Answer:

His results are not likely to be representative of his entire customer base. The sample size of 5 is too small to provide accurate data. Furthermore, by only surveying his top 5 customers, he is creating a selection bias because people who buy the most items are likely already the most satisfied with the products. To get better results, he should use a larger, random sample of all his customers.