A survey is conducted to determine the most common reason people own a cell phone. A company sent out a survey to customers between the ages of 20 and 30. Based on the responses, the company concluded that people own a cell phone for messaging purposes. Is this conclusion valid?

Question

A survey is conducted to determine the most common reason people own a cell phone. A company sent out a survey to customers between the ages of 20 and 30. Based on the responses, the company concluded that people own a cell phone for messaging purposes. Is this conclusion valid?
No, because not all people who own a cell phone have the same probability of being selected. 
No, because the sample includes customers of too many different ages. 
Yes, because the sample includes all customers between the ages of 20 and 30. 
Yes, because the sample includes male and female customers.

GPT-4o mini · Answer

The conclusion drawn by the company cannot be deemed valid based on the survey as described. The most fitting option to explain this is:

No, because not all people who own a cell phone have the same probability of being selected.

This is because the survey population is limited to a specific age range (20 to 30) and may not accurately represent the broader population of cell phone owners, who may have different reasons for ownership. Therefore, generalizing the findings to all cell phone owners based on this limited sample is not valid.