In the context of deciding between several possible headlines based on survey results, the terms mean, median, mode, and range can be useful to understand, but each serves a different purpose:
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Mean: This is the average of all the values (the total sum divided by the number of values). It can give you a general idea of the central tendency of the rankings but can be influenced by extreme values (outliers).
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Median: This is the middle value when all the rankings are sorted in order. If you have an odd number of rankings, it's the exact middle one; if even, it's the average of the two middle values. The median provides a better measure of central tendency when there are outliers present.
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Mode: This is the value (or values) that appears most frequently in the rankings. Since you're looking for the most popular headline, the mode would be the most relevant measure here, as it directly indicates which headline received the highest number of top rankings from your friends.
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Range: This measures the difference between the highest and lowest values in the rankings. While it can give you a sense of the overall spread of the rankings, it doesn’t directly inform the decision on which headline to choose.
Given the context of your decision-making process—where you're trying to determine the most popular headline among friends—the mode would be the best measure to use, as it captures the headline that received the most favorable rankings the most often. If you're specifically looking for the "most popular" option, the mode gives you a clear answer.
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