What is a random sample?

• A. A sample selected so that every member of the population has an equal chance of inclusion.
• B. A sample chosen by convenience.
• C. A sample biased toward certain subgroups.
• D. A sample with the largest values.

Answer: (A)

A random sample means giving every member of the population an equal chance to be included. This equal chance helps ensure the sample reflects the population as a whole, which makes it possible to generalize findings beyond the specific group studied. In practice, this can be done with methods like drawing names from a hat or using a random number generator to select who participates, so the selection isn’t influenced by convenience or bias.

Other approaches miss the mark because convenience sampling chooses the easiest people to reach, which can skew results toward that easily accessible group. A sample biased toward certain subgroups overrepresents those groups, distorting the picture of the whole population. Selecting based on the largest values isn’t about randomness and would bias the sample toward extreme values.