Sam Kenny, Director of Media Research, is analyzing subscribers to the Life in the Rockies magazine.He wonders whether subscriptions are influenced by the head of household's employment classification.His staff prepared the following contingency table from a random sample of 300 households: Sam's null hypothesis is ___.
A)"head of household classification" is related to "subscribes"
B)"head of household classification" is not independent of "subscribes"
C)"head of household classification" is independent of "subscribes"
D)"head of household classification" influences "subscribes"
E)"clerical is not related to managerial"

Question

Sam Kenny, Director of Media Research, is analyzing subscribers to the Life in the Rockies magazine.He wonders whether subscriptions are influenced by the head of household's employment classification.His staff prepared the following contingency table from a random sample of 300 households:  Sam's null hypothesis is ___.
A)"head of household classification" is related to "subscribes" 
B)"head of household classification" is not independent of "subscribes" 
C)"head of household classification" is independent of "subscribes" 
D)"head of household classification" influences "subscribes" 
E)"clerical is not related to managerial"

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The null hypothesis is always the assumption that there is no relationship or difference between variables. In this case, the null hypothesis is that "head of household classification" is independent of "subscribes." This means that whether someone subscribes to the magazine or not is not related to their employment classification as either professional, managerial, clerical, or blue-collar. The other answer choices either suggest a relationship or difference between the variables or are irrelevant to the question at hand.

Sam Kenny, Director of Media Research, Is Analyzing Subscribers to the Life