diff --git a/.chloggen/fix_probabilisticsamplerprocessor-panic.yaml b/.chloggen/fix_probabilisticsamplerprocessor-panic.yaml
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..3db78c61e888
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.chloggen/fix_probabilisticsamplerprocessor-panic.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+# One of 'breaking', 'deprecation', 'new_component', 'enhancement', 'bug_fix'
+change_type: bug_fix
+
+# The name of the component, or a single word describing the area of concern, (e.g. filelogreceiver)
+component: probabilisticsamplerprocessor
+
+# A brief description of the change.  Surround your text with quotes ("") if it needs to start with a backtick (`).
+note: Fix panic in probabilisticsampler processor if a log attribute to be sampled on is of type String.
+
+# One or more tracking issues related to the change
+issues: [18222]
+
+# (Optional) One or more lines of additional information to render under the primary note.
+# These lines will be padded with 2 spaces and then inserted directly into the document.
+# Use pipe (|) for multiline entries.
+subtext:
diff --git a/processor/probabilisticsamplerprocessor/logsprocessor.go b/processor/probabilisticsamplerprocessor/logsprocessor.go
index 4b42e76e4ce8..3701679744fb 100644
--- a/processor/probabilisticsamplerprocessor/logsprocessor.go
+++ b/processor/probabilisticsamplerprocessor/logsprocessor.go
@@ -52,7 +52,6 @@ func (lsp *logSamplerProcessor) processLogs(ctx context.Context, ld plog.Logs) (
 	ld.ResourceLogs().RemoveIf(func(rl plog.ResourceLogs) bool {
 		rl.ScopeLogs().RemoveIf(func(ill plog.ScopeLogs) bool {
 			ill.LogRecords().RemoveIf(func(l plog.LogRecord) bool {
-
 				tagPolicyValue := "always_sampling"
 				// pick the sampling source.
 				var lidBytes []byte
@@ -64,7 +63,19 @@ func (lsp *logSamplerProcessor) processLogs(ctx context.Context, ld plog.Logs) (
 				if lidBytes == nil && lsp.samplingSource != "" {
 					if value, ok := l.Attributes().Get(lsp.samplingSource); ok {
 						tagPolicyValue = lsp.samplingSource
-						lidBytes = value.Bytes().AsRaw()
+
+						switch value.Type() {
+						case pcommon.ValueTypeStr:
+							lidBytes = []byte(value.Str())
+						case pcommon.ValueTypeBytes:
+							lidBytes = value.Bytes().AsRaw()
+						default:
+							lsp.logger.Warn("Incompatible log record attribute, only String or Bytes supported; skipping log record",
+								zap.String("log_record_attribute", lsp.samplingSource), zap.Stringer("attribute_type", value.Type()))
+
+							return true
+						}
+
 					}
 				}
 				priority := lsp.scaledSamplingRate
diff --git a/processor/probabilisticsamplerprocessor/logsprocessor_test.go b/processor/probabilisticsamplerprocessor/logsprocessor_test.go
index 1c5e6f5a6647..5b2b0213e820 100644
--- a/processor/probabilisticsamplerprocessor/logsprocessor_test.go
+++ b/processor/probabilisticsamplerprocessor/logsprocessor_test.go
@@ -134,6 +134,15 @@ func TestLogsSampling(t *testing.T) {
 			},
 			received: 25,
 		},
+		{
+			name: "sampling a string attribute",
+			cfg: &Config{
+				SamplingPercentage: 50,
+				AttributeSource:    recordAttributeSource,
+				FromAttribute:      "bar",
+			},
+			received: 22,
+		},
 	}
 	for _, tt := range tests {
 		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
@@ -149,10 +158,13 @@ func TestLogsSampling(t *testing.T) {
 				ib := byte(i)
 				traceID := [16]byte{0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ib, ib, ib, ib, ib, ib, ib, ib}
 				record.SetTraceID(traceID)
-				// set half of records with a foo attribute
+				// set half of records with a foo bytes attribute
 				if i%2 == 0 {
 					b := record.Attributes().PutEmptyBytes("foo")
 					b.FromRaw(traceID[:])
+				} else {
+					// set the other half of records with a bar string attribute
+					record.Attributes().PutStr("bar", string(traceID[:]))
 				}
 				// set a fourth of records with a priority attribute
 				if i%4 == 0 {
@@ -170,3 +182,24 @@ func TestLogsSampling(t *testing.T) {
 		})
 	}
 }
+
+func TestLogsSamplingInvalidType(t *testing.T) {
+	sink := new(consumertest.LogsSink)
+	cfg := &Config{
+		SamplingPercentage: 100,
+		AttributeSource:    recordAttributeSource,
+		FromAttribute:      "bool_attr",
+	}
+	processor, err := newLogsProcessor(context.Background(), processortest.NewNopCreateSettings(), sink, cfg)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	logs := plog.NewLogs()
+	lr := logs.ResourceLogs().AppendEmpty().ScopeLogs().AppendEmpty().LogRecords()
+	record := lr.AppendEmpty()
+	record.Attributes().PutBool("bool_attr", true)
+
+	// When processing a log event with an unsupported type, the event is not processed.
+	err = processor.ConsumeLogs(context.Background(), logs)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	sunk := sink.AllLogs()
+	assert.Equal(t, 0, len(sunk))
+}