(no subject)

[sigmaleph]

In your opinion, what is the "statistical error" being alluded to in the spiders georg meme?

1) using the arithmetic mean as a statistic when the distribution has one massive outlier skewing it

2) using a sample containing said massive outlier to calculate the arithmetic mean

3) something else

Comments

[wingedcatgirl]

1 and 2 are fundamentally the same error, is our hot take.

[mathemagicalschema]

1 - it isn't mathematically incorrect to include outliers when calculating the mean, but it's highly misleading to include Spiders Georg if you're making a claim about how many spiders "the average person" eats. The mean tells you the average number of spiders eaten, but the average person - the modal or median person - does not eat any spiders.