Question

In a​ right-skewed distribution, which of the following is​ true?

A. The mean and median are approximately the same.
B. The mean tends to be greater than the median.
C. The mean tends to be less than the median.
D. None of these

Answer 1

In a right-skewed distribution, the mean tends to be greater than the median because the tail on the right side pulls the mean towards higher values.

Step-by-step explanation:

In a right-skewed distribution, the relationship between the mean, median, and mode is such that the mean is typically greater than the median. This is because the longer tail of the distribution on the right-hand side pulls the mean towards the higher values. This characteristic difference between the mean and median helps to identify the type of skewness in a distribution.

If we take an example where the data are skewed right, such as exam scores with a mode of 87, a median of 87.5, and a mean of 88.2, we can see how the right skew stretches out and pulls the mean above the median. This information is useful when analyzing probability distributions among other applications in statistics.