Same Stats, Different Graphs: Datasets with Varied Appearance and Identical Stats

Re:Same Stats, Different Graphs: Datasets with Varied Appear... by pmoriarty on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @10:56AM (#14246835)

I'm wondering how the general public can be educated about this when so many people are unaware even of the difference between the median and the mean.

In the mass media especially, the mean is often bandied about as the only statistic, and treated as if it was definitive.

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Re:Same Stats, Different Graphs: Datasets with Varied Appear... by rodionos on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @11:06AM (#14246937)

I think the public is largely aware of the difference since housing prices are often reported using the median. Intuitively, everyone knows that median housing price is the price of a 'regular' (most frequently sold) house in a given area.

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Re:Same Stats, Different Graphs: Datasets with Varied Appear... by xmj on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @12:45PM (#14248007)

The most regularly encountered house price at sale would be the mode.

Median is the value at which 50% of houses trade higher as well as lower.

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Re:Same Stats, Different Graphs: Datasets with Varied Appear... by ganley on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @11:11AM (#14246991)

I'm not at all sure that's true. That is, I agree that many people probably understand that mean and median are both things, but suspect that a minority of them understand how and why they are different, or when and why one makes more sense than the other.

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