3. Are the following polls accurate or misleading? Identify the good and bad polling techniques. (16 points)
a. "Eighty-nine percent of Americans like to eat hamburgers."
— poll taken of 300 people outside McDonald's at lunchtime
b. "Seventy-five percent of commuters are too busy to answer poll questions."
-poll taken of 500 people in front of the train station during rush hour
C. "Only two percent of Americans know whom Britney Spears married."
— poll taken of 65 residents at the Shady Rest Retirement Home
d. "Only 33 percent of those visiting the public library come to borrow books."
- poll taken of 1,000 people using the Philadelphia Free Library over a period of three weeks, at different
times of day

It is widely assumed that people need to engage in intellectual activities such as solving crossword puzzles or mathematics problems in order to maintain mental sharpness as they age. in fact, however, simply talking to other people—that is, participating in social interaction, which engages many mental and perceptual skills—suffices. evidence to this effect comes from a study showing that the more social contact people report, the better their mental skills. which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the force of the evidence cited? (a) as people grow older, they are often advised to keep exercising their physical and mental capacities in order to maintain or improve them. (b) many medical conditions and treatments that adversely affect a person's mental sharpness also tend to increase that person's social isolation. (c) many people are proficient both in social interactions and in solving mathematical problems. (d) the study did not itself collect data but analyzed data bearing on the issue from prior studies. (e) the tasks evaluating mental sharpness for which data were compiled by the study were more akin to mathematics problems than to conversation.