My next door neighbor, who is a mycologist (hey, it’s Ithaca–everyone’s a researcher here) asked me a very common statistical question–she was very concerned about her unequal sample sizes. She was doing a chi-square test and had about 11 observations in one grouping and 18 in the other.
She had already talked with a statistical consultant, who said the unequal samples were not a problem. But since she still didn’t understand why, she asked me.
As it turns out, I had just finished writing a document called “7 Statistical Issues that Researchers Shouldn’t Worry (So Much) About.” #4 is unequal sample sizes.
I wrote this because there are a number of issues that are of common concern to researchers but really aren’t a problem in all but the rarest situations. Yet they eat up a lot of mental energy.
So worry no more–get the report for free at The Analysis Factor, and read all about unequal sample sizes and more.