when large numbers participate we start to uncover some truth.
Only true when the large numbers are representative of the whole population because the sample is random, as any elementary statistics textbook will point out, and as I pointed out in the previous thread: This kind of voluntary response poll would have exactly NIL value in answering the question that appears to be asked here, which is, what Myers-Briggs types are there on HN? The people who come forward to answer the poll are not a random sample of the tens of thousands of people who read HN.
A response group can be ever so large, but if that group was not randomly selected, there is no particular reason to suppose that it accurately represents the population of interest.
Comments
when large numbers participate we start to uncover some truth.
Only true when the large numbers are representative of the whole population because the sample is random, as any elementary statistics textbook will point out, and as I pointed out in the previous thread: This kind of voluntary response poll would have exactly NIL value in answering the question that appears to be asked here, which is, what Myers-Briggs types are there on HN? The people who come forward to answer the poll are not a random sample of the tens of thousands of people who read HN.
http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?threadID=194473&tsta...
http://aurora.wells.edu/~srs/Math151-Fall02/Litdigest.htm
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5168/
A response group can be ever so large, but if that group was not randomly selected, there is no particular reason to suppose that it accurately represents the population of interest.