Question

Which of the following is a reason people sometimes use mean or median to misrepresent the “average” of a set of data?
a.
In many data sets, the mean and median are always similar.
b.
In most data sets, the mean and median are always different.
c.
The median is meaningless but is often confused with the mean.
d.
In data sets with outliers, either the mean or median can be used to make the data set appear more favorable to their agenda.

Answer 1

d.

When a dataset has outliers or is skewed, the mean and median can differ substantially. People can choose the measure that makes the result look better for their purpose (e.g., reporting mean income to be higher because of very high earners, or reporting median to downplay extremes). Options a and b are false absolute claims, and c is false because the median is a meaningful statistic.