In 2018, the Pew Research Center found that 61% of American adults thought that higher education in the United States was heading in the wrong direction.

Imagine a follow-up study that wanted to know how strongly people agreed or disagreed that higher education was headed in the wrong direction. The variable measures respondents’ agreement that higher education is headed in the wrong direction, where 0 is completely disagree and 100 is completely agree. The middle of the scale, 50, suggests that the respondent does not feel strongly either way. In a sample of 500 people, the mean score is 50.

a. Explain in words how you would interpret the mean score of 50.

b. You find that the median score for the sample is 59.5. Explain in words how you would interpret the median.

c. Given that the mean is 50 and the median is 59.5, calculate the median as a percentage of the mean. What could this indicate about the shape of the distribution of scores in this sample?

d. Which measure of central tendency would you choose to characterize the typical value in this sample—the median or the mean? Explain your answer.