Tag Archives: unrepresentative sample

Unrepresentative Samples and Results: Fatal Flaws in Survey Research

Posted on December 7, 2020 by George Beam

Updated December 8, 2020 Unrepresentative samples and, therefore, unrepresentative results, are fatal flaws in survey research. With rare exception, all survey research efforts (polls, surveys, interviews, et al.) are unrepresentative, thereby producing unreliable answers; that is, answers that may, or … Continue reading →

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2020 Election Polls, Like All Polls, Not Representative

Posted on November 18, 2020 by George Beam

It has been pointed out by many—including Finn McHugh in “Why the polls keep getting it wrong” and Mary Kay Ling and Doree Lewak, “Why election polls were so wrong again in 2020,”—that the 2020 election polls were not representative … Continue reading →

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Snowball Sampling–Don’t Do That!

Posted on April 3, 2016 by George Beam

Follow Geordie and don’t do snowball sampling.  Don’t do that!  Snowball sampling is not random sampling and random sampling is the only procedure that provides optimal possibility for obtaining a representative sample.  Unrepresentative samples cannot provide reliable information and should not be … Continue reading →

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Unreliable Interviews

Posted on December 10, 2015 by George Beam

Below are my comments on Marcia Angell’s article (New York Review of Books, 12/3/15).  I call attention to deficiencies perpetuated by survey researchers and by those, Angell in this instance, who rely on survey research: Marcia Angell uses a fatally … Continue reading →

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