The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article indicating differences in perception of sexual harassment on the job between men and women. The article claimed that women perceived the problem to be much more prevalent than did men. One question asked of both men and women was: "Do you think sexual harassment is a major problem in the American workplace?" Some 24% of the men compared to 62% of the women responded "Yes." Assuming W designates women's responses and M designates men's, what hypothesis should The Wall Street Journal test in order to show that its claim is true?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The Wall Street Journal wants to test if women perceive sexual harassment to be more prevalent than men do. So, they need to compare the proportion of women who responded "Yes" to the proportion of men who did. Therefore, the hypothesis should test if the difference in proportions is greater than zero (i.e., more women than men believe sexual harassment is a major problem in the American workplace). Option B is the correct choice because it sets up a one-tailed test where the alternative hypothesis states that the proportion for women who believe sexual harassment is a major problem is greater than the proportion for men who believe it.

The Wall Street Journal Recently Ran an Article Indicating Differences