Check a survey or claim: four questions
A standard method from Uses and abuses of statistics: the steps.
Steps
- Who was asked? Is the sample representative of the population, or biased (for example, only people at one MTR station at one time)?
- How many? Is the sample large enough?
- How was it asked? Leading wording ("Don't you agree that…?"), overlapping options, or missing options.
- How is it shown? A graph's vertical axis that doesn't start at 0, unequal picture sizes, the mean used when extreme values make the median fairer.
For the whole topic, read Uses and abuses of statistics: key points, common mistakes and how the DSE tests it.