Question: 250 randomly selected subjects included 55% who said that they don’t cheat when it comes to paying their taxes. The magazine printed the survey in its March issue, and the 250 responses were randomly selected from the surveys that were mailed in by readers. The first question on the survey asked “Do you cheat on your taxes or are you honest?” The magazine stated that “It’s encouraging to learn that most Americans are honest – at least when it comes to filling out their tax forms.”

a. Use the methods of this chapter to test the claim that “most Americans don’t cheat on taxes.” What do you conclude? Is it possible for any survey results to prove that most Americans don’t cheat on their taxes?

b. Apart from the results of the hypothesis test, there are at least four other important issues that affect the validity of the survey results. Identify the other issues and describe how they affect the validity of the results.