What are the effects of outliers in data analysis?

What are outliers and how do they affect data analysis?

Outliers are data points that differ significantly from other observations. They can skew results and affect statistical analyses.

Can you give me an example of how an outlier might impact a mean calculation?

Sure! If you have the data set {2, 3, 4, 5, 100}, the mean would be skewed by the outlier 100, resulting in a mean of 22 instead of 3.6.

Are there situations where outliers can be beneficial?

Yes, outliers can indicate variability in your data or highlight important phenomena, such as fraud detection in financial data.

How can I identify outliers in my data?

You can use methods like the Z-score, IQR (Interquartile Range), or visualizations like box plots to identify outliers.