Which is the best measure of central tendency for the type of data below–the mean, the median, or the mode? Explain.

Question

Which is the best measure of central tendency for the type of data below–the mean, the median, or the mode? Explain.

Hours of sleep each night
A. Median; there will be outliers
B. Range; there are no outliers
C. Mode; the data are non-numeric
D. Mean; the outliers are limited

Answer 1

The best measure of central tendency for the type of data below would be the mean. This is because the data is in a numeric form and there are no extreme outliers that would skew the data. The mean provides an average of the data and is a good representation of the central tendency in this case. The median could also be used if there were outliers present, but as the prompt states that outliers are limited, the mean would be the preferable option. The mode is not useful here as the data is not discrete and no value appears more frequently than any other.