In 2005 a commercial research firm carried out a study of hand washing in public restrooms. the researchers observed 6,336 individuals wash their hands, or not, in the public restrooms of major attractions in atlanta, chicago, new york city, and san francisco. ninety percent of the women observed washed their hands, compared with only 75 percent of the men. interestingly enough, when asked via a telephone survey, 97 percent of women and 96 percent of men claimed they always washed their hands after using a public restroom. what disadvantage of survey research does this illustrate?

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Business

Deanna Bauer

16 April, 05:37

In 2005 a commercial research firm carried out a study of hand washing in public restrooms. the researchers observed 6,336 individuals wash their hands, or not, in the public restrooms of major attractions in atlanta, chicago, new york city, and san francisco. ninety percent of the women observed washed their hands, compared with only 75 percent of the men. interestingly enough, when asked via a telephone survey, 97 percent of women and 96 percent of men claimed they always washed their hands after using a public restroom. what disadvantage of survey research does this illustrate?

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Alan Watson · Answer 1

This is an example of response bias - people will likely feel embarrassed or not want to share whether or not they deviated from the expected norm or washing their hands which is why the response is different than the actual observed data.