Which measure of central tendency is most affected by extreme values?

Which measure of central tendency is most affected by extreme values?

• A. MEDIAN
• B. MODE
• C. RANGE
• D. MEAN

Answer: (D)

Extreme values pull the mean toward them because the mean averages every value in the data set. When you add a big outlier, it drags the sum upward and, since you divide by the same count, the mean increases noticeably. A simple example shows this: with values like 2, 3, 4, 5, the mean is 4, but if you add a very large value such as 100, the mean jumps toward 100, while the middle value remains around 4. The median, in contrast, depends on the order and position of values and is much less affected by outliers; it tends to stay near the center of the data. The mode is just the most frequent value and usually isn’t swayed by a single extreme value unless that extreme becomes the most common value. The range measures how spread out the data are (difference between max and min) and isn’t a measure of central tendency at all. So, the mean is the measure most affected by extreme values.

Extreme values pull the mean toward them because the mean averages every value in the data set. When you add a big outlier, it drags the sum upward and, since you divide by the same count, the mean increases noticeably. A simple example shows this: with values like 2, 3, 4, 5, the mean is 4, but if you add a very large value such as 100, the mean jumps toward 100, while the middle value remains around 4. The median, in contrast, depends on the order and position of values and is much less affected by outliers; it tends to stay near the center of the data. The mode is just the most frequent value and usually isn’t swayed by a single extreme value unless that extreme becomes the most common value. The range measures how spread out the data are (difference between max and min) and isn’t a measure of central tendency at all. So, the mean is the measure most affected by extreme values.