Manifest — Selection Bias

Manifest is the story of a missing plane that shows up over 5 years late, but the people on the plane don’t experience any time change. Saanvi was a researcher whose work has been used to treat pediatric cancer while she was away. One of the boys on the flight qualifies for treatment, but allowing him to join the study puts the study at risk since they don’t know what happened on the flight. Selection bias occurs when people are selected (or not selected) into treatments in an unrandom fashion. The young boy qualifies to be part of the study but is excluded on the basis that it’s not clear what happened on the flight.

Thanks to Alfredo Paloyo for the clip recommendation!

Yes, Prime Minister — Leading Questions

How a survey questions is asked may produced biased results, especially if the surveyor is trying to elicit a particular response. Besides the issues of responders trying to answer questions that they believe the researcher is asking, biased surveys can be used to show support both for and against the same topic. In this sketch comedy piece, Sir Appleby gives examples to his friend about various questions that could produce an opinion of supporting AND opposing conscription.

H/T to Chris Neill for the suggestion!

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