Question

Identify which of the following measures is generally the most resistant to outliers. Choose the correct option from the provided choices.

A. Mean
B. Median
C. Mode
D. Range

Answer 1

The median is the measure of central tendency that is most resistant to outliers.

Step-by-step explanation:

The most resistant measure to outliers is the median. Unlike the mean, which can be heavily influenced by extreme values, the median is not affected by outliers. To understand this, let's consider an example:

Suppose we have the following dataset: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 1000. If we calculate the mean, it will be heavily skewed by the outlier (1000), resulting in a larger value. However, if we calculate the median, it will be unaffected by the outlier and give us a more accurate representation of the central tendency, in this case, 35. The mode, on the other hand, is not a reliable measure of central tendency as it only represents the most frequently occurring value.