by Jason Bodner
Casey Research
In statistics, an outlier is a data point that differs significantly from other observations. That’s why outliers are often excluded from data sets. They can muddy an otherwise clear picture.
Imagine your kid feels sick. You measure their temperature with a touchless thermometer. The first reading says 99.2°… a little high, so you do it again. The second reading says 145°… obviously wrong. So, a third and fourth time each says 99.2°. You obviously throw out the outlier in this case.
This makes sense in most scientific scenarios. But it doesn’t always…