Question

in the decathlon event at large track meets, male athletes compete in a total of 10 events. their combined performance in each of the events is used to determine the winner. two of the events are the 200 - meter dash and the javelin throw. for 12 athletes at a large international competition, performances in these events are recorded and placed in a scatterplot. the performance for one athlete from latvia is labeled in the graph. how does this point influence the correlation of the scatterplot? this data point weakens the correlation. this data point strengthens the correlation. this data point has no influence on the correlation. removing this data point would lower the correlation coefficient.

Explanation:

Outliers can weaken the correlation in a scatter - plot. The data point for Latvia is an outlier as it is far from the general cluster of data points. When there is an outlier, it makes the relationship between the two variables (200 - meter dash and javelin throw in this case) less clear. If we consider the general trend of the other data points (which are more closely grouped), the outlier (Latvia's data point) does not follow that trend well.

Answer:

This data point weakens the correlation.