Question

A board of governors publishes information on family net worth. In​ 2010, the mean net worth of families in a particular country was ​$487.4 thousand and the median net worth was ​$77.7 thousand. Which measure of center do you think is more​ appropriate? Explain your answer. Choose the correct answer below. A. The mean because it is not strongly affected by the relatively few families with extremely low net worth. B. The median because it is not strongly affected by the relatively few families with extremely low net worth. C. The mean because it is not strongly affected by the relatively few families with extremely high net worth. D. The median because it is not strongly affected by the relatively few families with extremely high net worth. E. The mean because it takes into account each​ family's net worth in the country. F. The median because it takes into account each​ family's net worth in the country.

Answer 1

D. The median because it is not strongly affected by the relatively few families with extremely high net worth.

Explanation:

If the median net worth of families in a particular country was ​$77.7 thousand.

It means that at least half of the families in the country have a net worth of ​$77.7 thousand or below.

However, for the mean net worth of the families to be $487.4 thousand, there have to be some extremely high net worth families.

Median is the preferred measure of central tendency when there are a few extreme scores in the distribution of the data. as a single outlier can have a great effect on the mean

Therefore, the median is an appropriate measure of the center because it is not strongly affected by the relatively few families with extremely high net worth.