defalt86 t1_jedznpz wrote
There is no set minimum to be a valid sample. What matters is confidence intervals. Confidence intervals basically mean 'how much of the sample needs to align for it to be significant.'
Imagine you only asked 2 people if America is fascist, and they both said yes. Does this mean everyone thinks America is fascist, or is it just random? You have no confidence.
If you ask 30 people, "is America fascist," and 28 say yes, you can be 95% confident America is fascist.
The larger your sample, the smaller % you need to gain confidence. If you asked 1000 people, and 700 say yes, you can still be pretty confident that America is, in fact, fascist.
MidnightAdventurer t1_jee0yg1 wrote
Technically, you can say "Americans think America is fascist" not that it actually is. This is another common error that people make with data - You can only draw conclusions about what you actually measured and for surveys in particular, the way you ask the questions can have a big impact on the results
Asking people what they think is only measuring what they think, not measuring against an objective standard. To answer if America is actually fascist, you'd need to define some measurable parameters for what that means then collect data on those parameters
defalt86 t1_jee17zh wrote
Fair enough. We would have to look at the many, many other studies that have already been done that prove America is truly a fascist state.
MidnightAdventurer t1_jeg32az wrote
Sure, you obviously have a political point to make with your example...
My point was that in a conversation about statistical method, it is really important to make it clear that you need to be really careful that the statistics you collect and examine actually support the conclusions you make as this is a really, really common mistake
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