In descriptive statistics, what is the main advantage of

Solution

The median is often preferred over the mean in cases where the data is skewed or contains outliers. Unlike the mean, which can be heavily influenced by extreme values, the median represents the middle value, making it a more robust measure of central tendency for distributions with outliers. In a dataset with extreme high or low values, the median remains unaffected, providing a more accurate reflection of the central location of data points, especially when the goal is to understand the data's typical value without distortion from outliers. Option A is incorrect as the median is not always simpler to calculate; it depends on dataset size and ordering. Option C is incorrect because the mean is often the preferred measure in normally distributed datasets. Option D is incorrect since the median only considers the middle position, not all points equally. Option E is incorrect because the median remains stable even with extreme values.