Question

Identify the circumstances in which the median rather than the mean is the preferred measure of central tendency

Accepted Answer

As measures of central tendency, the mean and the median each have
advantages and disadvantages. The median may be a better indicator of
the most typical value if a set of scores has an outlier(an outlier is
an extreme value that differs greatly from other values). For this
reason, the median often is used when there are a few extreme values
that could greatly influence the mean and distort what might be
considered typical. This often is the case with home prices and with
income data for a group of people, which often is very skewed. For
such data, the median often is reported instead of the mean. For
example, in a group of people,
if the salary of one person is 10 times the mean, the mean salary of
the group will be higher because of the unusually large salary. In
this case, the median may better represent the typical salary level of
the group.

Question #12833

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