convenience sample

A convenience sample is a euphemism for choosing subjects for an experiment or study from friends, work colleagues, or anyone that happenbs to be easy to approach. A convenience sample is rarely suitable for creating strong empirical results, but can be useful for pilot studies or developing protocols for more managed samples. The exception is when a phenomenon is known or believed to be farly common across all people, so that there is no issue with balancing the demographics. Especial care is need to avoid the Hawthorn effect, although sometimes friends and colleagues may turn out to be a cussed participant for more critical than external participants, who may be too polite.