Simpson's paradox in the context of "Weighted arithmetic mean"

Play Trivia Questions online!

 or

Skip to study material about Simpson's paradox in the context of "Weighted arithmetic mean"
Ad spacer

⭐ Core Definition: Simpson's paradox

Simpson's paradox is a phenomenon in probability and statistics in which a trend appears in several groups of data but disappears or reverses when the groups are combined. This result is often encountered in social-science and medical-science statistics, and is particularly problematic when frequency data are unduly given causal interpretations. The paradox can be resolved when confounding variables and causal relations are appropriately addressed in the statistical modeling (e.g., through cluster analysis).

Simpson's paradox has been used to illustrate the kind of misleading results that the misuse of statistics can generate.

↓ Menu

>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<
In this Dossier

Simpson's paradox in the context of Weighted mean

The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The notion of weighted mean plays a role in descriptive statistics and also occurs in a more general form in several other areas of mathematics.

If all the weights are equal, then the weighted mean is the same as the arithmetic mean. While weighted means generally behave in a similar fashion to arithmetic means, they do have a few counterintuitive properties, as captured for instance in Simpson's paradox.

↑ Return to Menu
LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Weighted mean ← Weighted arithmetic mean
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Probability → Statistics → Causal → Confounding variable → Cluster analysis → Misuse of statistics →