What is one characteristic of an outlier?

An outlier is a data point that deviates significantly from the other observations in a dataset. One of its key characteristics is its potential to skew the results of data analysis. Outliers can affect statistical measures such as the mean and standard deviation, leading to misleading interpretations of the data. For instance, if a dataset contains an outlier that is exceptionally high or low compared to the majority of the data, it can distort the overall understanding of trends, averages, and relationships among the data points.

While it may seem that some outliers have minimal impact or could be disregarded, they can still provide valuable insights into anomalies or variations in data that are relevant. Therefore, identifying and assessing the influence of outliers is crucial in data analysis, which makes the ability of outliers to skew results a defining characteristic.