In: Statistics and Probability
9. (6 pts) What are outliers? Describe the effects of outliers on the mean, median, and mode.
In a set of data outliers are the few data values that are significantly different from other data values. In other words, these are values that lie far away from all other data values when all values are arranged in ascending or descending order. The outlier can either be an extremely low score or an extremely high one.
Mean is calculated by taking all data values in consideration. Therefore, when an outlier is present, that value is also used in the calculation. If the outlier is extremely small, the mean will be smaller and if the outlier is large, the mean will increase.
Median is calculated as the middle value when data is arranged in ascending or descending order. So, no matter what the extreme scores are, the position of middle value will not change.
Mode is the data value with maximum frequency. The outliers cannot have very high frequency. Therefore, mode is also not impacted by the presence of outliers.