Question

Given the box plot, will the mean or the median provide a better description of the center?

a. The Mean, because the data distribution is symmetrical

b. the median, because the data distribution is symmetrical.

c. the mean, because the data distribution is skewed to the right.

d. the median, because the data distribution is skewed to the right

Answer 1

D. Mean always goes toward the skewness due to outliers.
Median is minimally affected by outliers.

Answer 2

From the given box plot we can see that there are more values towards the right end than are on the left end.

This means the data is skewed towards right. A symmetrical box plot has same number of values on both sides of the median.

Whenever we are dealing with skewed graphs, the best option to choose from mean and median is always the median. This is because due to large number of data values on the one side, the mean will always be closer to that side. Median is not largely affected in this case.

Therefore, the correct answer would be option D.
The median, because the data distribution is skewed to the right