A bias is an error that results in a misrepresentation of a whole population.
See solution.
Practice makes perfect
A sportswriter wants to determine whether baseball coaches think wooden bats should be mandatory in collegiate baseball. The sportswriter mails surveys to all collegiate coaches and uses the surveys that are returned. Here, the population consists of all collegiate coaches and the sample of the coaches who responded the mail. Let's recall that samples can be classified.
Members that are readily available or easy to reach are selected.
Even though the sportswriter mails surveys to all collegiate coaches, they only use the surveys that are returned. Therefore, this is a self-selected sample. The sample is biased because only the collegiate coaches with a strong opinion are likely to complete and return the survey.
