From the course: Everyday Statistics, with Eddie Davila

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What is an outlier?

What is an outlier?

From the course: Everyday Statistics, with Eddie Davila

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What is an outlier?

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- [Instructor] In 2008, best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell published a book called "Outliers: The Story of Success". It discussed success in numerous fields, including business, sports, and music. Specifically the book examined why certain groups or individuals were significantly more successful than others. These examples of extreme success were labeled as outliers. In the world of statistics, we also often discuss outliers. While often our data sets demonstrate specific patterns, on occasion our plotted data detects one very odd data point, which we refer to as an outlier. But what qualifies as an outlier? This seems to be an outlier. But how about this one? Or how about this one? Interestingly, while statisticians love to discuss and argue every possible detail, statisticians do not have a specific statistical threshold for what is and what is not an outlier. Some statisticians take the approach of you sort of…

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