A data analyst is examining a dataset of employee salaries that contains a few extremely high values that are not representative of the majority of the employees. Which of the following measures of central tendency should the analyst use to best represent the typical salary, given that it is least affected by these extreme values?
The median represents the middle value in an ordered dataset. Because of this, it is not significantly influenced by a few extreme values (outliers). The mean, which is the sum of all values divided by the count of values, would be skewed upwards by the extremely high salaries. The mode represents the most frequently occurring value, which may not accurately reflect the center of a salary dataset. The range is a measure of statistical dispersion (the difference between the maximum and minimum values), not central tendency, and is highly sensitive to outliers.
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Why is the median less affected by outliers than the mean?
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When is it appropriate to use the mean instead of the median?
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How does the mode differ from the median and mean in datasets?