In a short essay, discuss which measure of location should be used if the distribution is asymmetric

What will be an ideal response?

If the distribution is asymmetric, which measure should be used? If the variable is measured on a nominal scale, the mode should be used. If the variable is measured on an ordinal scale, the median is appropriate. If the variable is measured on an interval or ratio scale, the mode is a poor measure of central tendency. This can be seen from Table 16.2. While the modal value of 6 has the highest frequency of 9, it represents only 20.5 percent of the sample. In general, for interval or ratio data, the median is a better measure of central tendency, although it too ignores available information about the variable. The actual values of the variable above and below the median are ignored. The mean is the most appropriate measure of central tendency for interval or ratio data. The mean makes use of all the information available since all of the values are used in computing it. However, the mean is sensitive to isolated cases with extremely small or extremely large values, called outliers. When outliers are in the data, the mean is not a good measure of central tendency and it is useful to consider both the mean and the median.