A researcher is studying the attitudes of liberals and determines that one characteristic of liberals is support for abortion rights. Joe describes himself as a liberal, so the researcher concludes that Joe supports abortion rights. This is an example of ______.
A) systematic error
B) ecological fallacy
C) random error
D) reliability

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This is an example of the ecological fallacy because the researcher is making an assumption about an individual based on group-level data. Just because a characteristic is associated with a group does not mean it can be assumed about any individual within that group.

A Researcher Is Studying the Attitudes of Liberals and Determines