Peter Poll wants to support his political party, the Whigs. This is an extinct political party that was dissolved in 1860. However, Peter feels so strongly about rapidly expanding the economics and infrastructure of the United States that he seeks to revive the party for the upcoming election. Peter decides to conduct a poll on likely voters to see how much support his ideas might have. He calls a local town hall meeting where only registered voters, who are going to vote this fall, may attend. 100 people RSVP. He figures that this sample population would easily be representative of the nation as a whole.
Peter has the event catered for the first hour of the event- the meet and greet. Peter decides this is the best time to poll individuals about his ideas before he speaks to them en masse. The following are the questions that Peter is going to ask each person:
- Do you think that America should expand the economy and thus create more jobs for people?
- Do you think that America should repair the roads and bridges that are crumbling because they have not been repaired in years?
Upon the conclusion of polling at the end of the hour, Peter had talked to every one of the 100 people in attendance. Each one of them answered 'yes' to each of the two questions. Peter then concluded that his ideas would be supported by the entire nation and that every voting citizen would vote for the Whig Party.
Questions:
- Is this a strong or weak inductive argument? Why or why not?
- Did Peter choose a good sample size? Why or why not?
- Were the questions that Peter asked each person slanted or unbiased? Why or why not?