When critiquing a research report, why would you wnat to know the
demographic details of the sample used in the project?

Primarily I think it has to do with generalizability.  Ultimately, the
results of the research can only be generalized to the type of people
who made up the sample.  Without knowing that the sample only included
males, or 4th graders, or people who volunteered, or people who
happened to be at mall on a Tuesday afternoon, you don't know how
limited the generalizability of the findings are.  How would females
have responded, what about the 3rd graders, or how would the people at
work on a Tuesday afternoon have responded.  If you did a presidential
poll and declared that Bush was going to win, it would be important to
know your sample demographics.  Did it include a wide variety of
people or did you just ask 40-60 year old white males who make more
than 2 million dollars a year.

It's also important to know the number of participants used in the
sample because your results are going to be more questionable with
smaller sample sizes.  If I ask 2 people and declare that peanut
butter and jelly is the most popular ice cream in the world, I'm
guessing you'd raise your eyebrows and question if that was really
true.

It might also be a valuable method of determining if there has been
any plagiarism. People who plagiarize other sources normally don't
take the time to find out the demographics of an issue while those who
are using original data often can.

tutuzdad-ga

I'd be interested to know if my comment provides an answer.

regards;
tutuzdad-ga