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When your data is symmetric and narrowly spread about it.

Each measure of central tendency has strengths and weaknesses. The mean takes every piece of numeric data and treats them all as equally weighted. Outliers will have equal weight with any other measure. In the long run, when you want to estimate a value that is least different from all values, use the mean. If you want your estimate to be closest to absolutely correct or to be absolutely correct most often, use the mode, and if you want your estimate to be as likely to be above the true value as below, use the median.

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Q: When is using the mean as a measure of central tendency useful?
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