Which measure of variability is most sensitive to outliers or extreme values in a dataset?

Correct option is B

Standard Deviation (SD) is the measure of variability that is most sensitive to outliers or extreme values. This is because SD involves squaring the differences between each data point and the mean, which disproportionately increases the impact of outliers. In contrast, Quartile Deviation (QD) and Average Deviation (AD) are based on medians or absolute differences, making them less sensitive to extreme values.

Information Booster:
1. Standard Deviation is used to measure how spread out the values are around the mean.
2. Outliers can dramatically increase the value of the standard deviation.
3. Quartile Deviation (QD) and Average Deviation (AD) are less sensitive to extreme values because they focus on central tendencies (like the median) and absolute deviations.
4. Standard Deviation is widely used in normal distributions to assess the variability of data.