r - How should I use the `mean` function when there are outliers in the distribution?

Question

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Answer 1

1. Use median

median(x)

The median is a summary statistic which isn't 'thrown' by outliers.

2. Use a trimmed mean

mean(x, trim = .05)

A trimmed mean is the mean of all values except those in the highest and lowest n%, where n is a value you choose. The code above would return the mean of every value in x except the highest 5% and the lowest 5%.

Whatever you do, make sure you report transparently.