Increasing frequency of outliers in a data set is most closely associated with which statistical concept?

• A. Bias
• B. Precision
• C. Dispersion
• D. Accuracy

Answer: (C)

Dispersion describes how spread out the values in a data set are. When outliers appear more frequently, they pull the data away from the central cluster, making the overall spread larger. This shows up as a bigger range and higher variability measures like variance and standard deviation. Bias is a systematic shift in the mean, accuracy is about closeness to the true value, and precision concerns repeatability of measurements. None of those directly capture the effect of unusually extreme values on how spread out the data are, which is why dispersion is the best fit. For example, adding extreme values to a otherwise tight cluster substantially widens the range and increases the standard deviation, illustrating increased dispersion.