Intuition for Distribution Differences
8 hours ago
- Cumulative distribution curves show the proportion of the population below a given score.
- A lower cumulative curve indicates higher scores overall, as seen when comparing city-dwellers to the general population.
- The median score is found at the 50% point on the y-axis, with the corresponding x-axis value.
- A treatment can increase score variation, leading to both better scores for most and worse scores for the bottom third.
- Comparing only averages or medians can be misleading; visual inspection of distributions reveals nuanced effects like increased variation.
- Statistical significance testing is the next step to confirm observed differences.