05-20-2016, 09:32 AM
(05-20-2016, 08:53 AM)Kinser79 Wrote: A sample size of 196 is not indicative of anything. The size of the sample is far too small. They may have only found a couple dozen extremely stupid people. This needs to be replicated with a much larger sample size.
A sample size of 196 may be adequate for some studies and inadequate for others.
One works with the material available. One establishes an experimental outline before one asks the questions so that there can be no ambiguity about the validity of recorded data. One does not ask open-ended questions; one has clear "yes" or "no" questions or questions that put responses into neat categories.
Nobody expects random samples to get precise results. One wants instead conclusive results.
How good a sample is depends upon the randomness of the sample and its representative character. A sample of that size to assess whether Pat Leahy (D-VT) has a good chance of being re-elected might be good enough. Vermont is fairly homogeneous, so it is easy to poll. Such a sample size in a not-so-homogeneous state (Texas) could easily be inadequate.
...So how does one test the validity of a statistical study? Do it again! Good science gets replicable results. Results may not be precisely alike, but if they are close one gets similar results.
...Can you make sense of “Hidden meaning transforms unparalleled abstract beauty.”? I can't. Abstract art can be beautiful (really, it can!)., and the beauty of some abstract art has little to do with "meaning", especially "hidden meaning". Art needs no "meaning" to make it attractive. When I see the word transform I expect the transforming entity to somehow change the object transformed... and if I see that sentence I am compelled to ask the question, "So into what does the hidden meaning transform "abstract beauty?", or more crudely, "into what?"
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.