Which measure of central tendency is least affected by outliers in a skewed distribution?

• A. Mean
• B. Median
• C. Mode
• D. Range

Answer: (B)

When a distribution is skewed and contains outliers, the middle value provides the most stable summary of where data centers. The mean averages every data point, so extreme values pull it toward the tail, which can misrepresent the typical score. The median, by contrast, depends on the order of values rather than their magnitudes, so it remains close to the central cluster even if there are very large or very small outliers. For example, in a set like 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 100, the mean is greatly influenced by 100, while the median stays near the central values. The mode denotes the most frequent value and can be uninformative or unstable in skewed data, and the range describes spread, not central tendency. Thus, the median is the measure least affected by outliers in a skewed distribution.