Question

I’m curious about the effect a toy’s packaging has on how well it sells. I contact 17 local toy stores, and 5 of them agree to participate in my experiment. 3 of those stores are randomly selected to receive the toy in shiny packaging, and the other 2 stores receive the same toy in plain packaging. After one month, the total number of toys sold in each store is recorded.

a) (3 points) What population can we make inference to? Can we make a statement of cause or only a statement of association?

b) (2 points) Discuss one way the design of this study could be improved to make the results more broadly applicable.

Answer 1

a) The population regarding which we can make an inference is parents, relatives, and cousins who buy toys for children. We can make a statement of cause and association both because the number of toys sold is caused by the aesthetics and it is also associated with the aesthetics because people look at the packaging of the toy packaging as well to impress the person for whom they are buying the toy.

b) Since 5 of the stores agreed to participate in the experiment we should randomly select 4 stores and assign shiny packaging to 2 stores and plain packaging to the other 2 stores. This will make the results more broadly applicable.

Good luck with your studies!!!