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Of the mean, the median and the mode, which reflects skewing the most, and why?
AThe mode, because it is the most frequent value
BThe mean, because outliers affect it the most
CThe median, because it splits the data in half
DThe mode, because it may not be unique at all
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B. The mean, because outliers affect it the most
1. Skewness comes from a long tail of unusually high or low values.
2. The mean adds every value, so those tail values move it directly.
3. The mean therefore reflects skewing more than the median or the mode does.
4. The median only counts positions, so a longer tail barely shifts it.
_Source: OpenStax Introductory Business Statistics (CC BY 4.0), Ch 2 "Descriptive Statistics", section 2.6 Skewness and the Mean, Median, and Mode_
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