In order to determine what proportion of a town's residents approves of a new plan for trash collection, the town council placed an ad in the newspaper asking residents to phone in their opinions. Explain why the results of this poll may differ from the actual beliefs of all residents in the town.

Question

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The Answer is The sampling technique described uses self-selection. Only those residents with extreme views on the new plan are likely to respond to the advertisement. A second problem with the poll technique described is that not all residents who will be affected by the new trash collection plan are likely to read the newspaper. The opinions of a large number of residents are therefore unlikely to be included in the results of the poll.

In Order to Determine What Proportion of a Town's Residents