Question

Dr. Bunson Honeydew and Dr. Strangepork both wanted to know how effective TV ads were at persuading the public to vote for Presidential candidates.

Dr. Bunson Honeydew conducted a laboratory experiment where subjects (primarily students) were invited into a lab to watch a sitcom pilot.  They first took a survey mostly about TV show preferences, but that also measured their pre-existing political attitudes.  The subjects then sat down to watch the sitcom.  The advertisements shown during the commercial breaks were randomly assigned to be in favor of Hillary Clinton, in favor of Donald Trump, or for Saran Wrap.  After the sitcom was over, the subjects took a survey about the sitcom, which also measured their political preferences.  Dr. Bunson Honeydew found that subjects shown the Trump TV ads during the sitcom were more likely to support the Republican in the election relative to those subjects who saw the Saran Wrap ad.  Likewise, subjects shown the ad for Clinton were more likely to support the Democrat compared to the subjects who saw the Saran Wrap ad.  

Dr. Strangepork began by looking at prior election results and early polling in Presidential race. He then tracked every ad aired in every media market during the election. Using a large on-line tracking survey panel of a representative sample of registered voters, Dr. Strangepork regressed stated support for the candidate in each media market on the balance of ads run by the candidates (i.e., how much of an advantage does each candidate have that week in that media market).  After controlling for the national news media and various characteristics of each media market, Dr. Strangepork found no evidence that TV ads persuaded voters in media markets.  If anything, there was a statistically insignificant decrease in support for the candidate who ran the most ads

Please answer the following questions

What is the unit of analysis in Dr. Bunson Honeydew’s experiment?

What is the unit of analysis in Dr. Strangepork’s analysis?

Compared to Dr. Strangepork’s design, what is the biggest strength of Dr. Bunson Honeydew’s study?

What do you think accounts for the different finding between the two studies?

Compared to Dr. Strangepork’s design, what is the biggest weakness of Dr. Bunson Honeydew’s study?

Answer 1

1. The unit of analysis in Dr. Honeydew’s study are individuals

2. The unit of analysis in Dr. Strangepork’s study are past election results.

3. They biggest strength in Dr. Honeydew’s study is that it used the experimental method. This method is the most preferred when one wants to establish a cause and effect relationship.

4. Because Dr. Honeydew conducted his study in a laboratory setting, it is likely that we was able to eliminate and control extraneous variables that may have impacted the relationship between the variables. On the other hand, Dr. Strangepork used existing data records to find trends in the population on which he had no control.

Please post the other questions separately as we are supposed to answer just one question or four sub parts of a question.