A class of biology students conducted an experiment on ants. Each group was randomly assigned 20 ants. Each ant was placed halfway between food located down a dark-colored path and food located down a bright-colored path.

Five of the groups find that the ants choose the bright path more often. Three groups find that the ants prefer the dark path and two groups find no preference among their ants.

A student who hypothesized that ants are attracted to bright colors found that this hypothesis was supported by his group's data.

How is the student's conclusion an example of bias?

Question

Tessa Gordon

Biology

15 February, 09:02

A class of biology students conducted an experiment on ants. Each group was randomly assigned 20 ants. Each ant was placed halfway between food located down a dark-colored path and food located down a bright-colored path.

Five of the groups find that the ants choose the bright path more often. Three groups find that the ants prefer the dark path and two groups find no preference among their ants.

A student who hypothesized that ants are attracted to bright colors found that this hypothesis was supported by his group's data.

How is the student's conclusion an example of bias?

+4

Answers (1)

Know the Answer?

Markus Hoffman · Answer 1

Because the repetition of the experiment yields different results when they are realized by distinct groups of students.

Explanation:

The students needs to repeat the experiment and increase the value of n (sample size) in order to obtain statistically significant results and thus confirm the working hypothesis.