The nature of this bias is illustrated in Table 26 which summarizes the reasons for the rejection of 1,713 personal loan applicants by a metropolitan bank. The first two rea- sons—too much borrowing and weak statement—account for about 50 percent of the total number of rejections and suggest that the vocational and financial characteristics of these prospective borrowers were unsatisfactory. Rejections of this nature might well be expected to bias the sample. On the other hand, rejections for "failure to mention existing loans with other members," a reason which presumably indi- cates dishonesty or irresponsibility, may not bias the sample appreciably; and the same may be true of the last four.
