[Foundation-l] Attribution survey, first results

[Robert Rohde]

On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 10:22 AM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm not a statistician, someone else can work out how large a majority
> is needed from a sample size of 570 to be confident (at the 95% level,
> say?) that a majority of the population as a whole agrees.

If the 570 people are a RANDOM sampling of the underlying population:
307 people (53.5%)

If 307 out of 570 people (53.5%) agree with statement X, you can be
confident at the 95% level that at least 50% of the underlying
population would agree with X.

Of course the current sample is not random, and I don't think rights
should be apportioned by simple majority either.

-Robert Rohde