The Gallup Poll Demonstrates Why Statisticians Don't Always Prefer The

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Mean....


CNN anchor Rick Sanchez just cited a CNN/Gallup Poll showing Bush leading Kerry 51-43 in Florida and then referred to a poll of polls (mean or average) and said the poll of polls shows Bush up by two....


Of course, because of the small number of polls (four) Bush's whopping lead skewed the results... All the other polls showed a tiny Kerry or Bush lead or a tied race....


Think about it this way....


If I'm at a bar with two of my friends and Bill Gates walked in the average or mean income of the patrons of the bar is in excess of one billion dollars...

I hate Gallup...

[JuniorPlankton]

1. Exactly

Imagine one of your feet in the stove, the other in the freezer.
On average, you are fine....


:mad:

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. If He Would Have Used The Median The Race Is Tied...

I doubt most news anchors have even a rudimentary knowledge of social science research...

[klook]

3. The Mean Isn't Nice

[kick-ass-bob]

4. Mean is only useful when there is not a skewed distribution

When there is a skewed dist. then (obviously) the proper measure of the average is the median.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. Or When You Have A Gigantic Sample....

Bill Gates wealth wouldn't increase the per capita GDP of California residents but it made a difference in my bar hypothesis...

[kick-ass-bob]

6. right.

:hi: