Is the interquartile range affected by extreme scores?

The interquartile range (IQR) is particularly useful as a measure of statistical dispersion because it is not influenced by extreme scores or outliers. The IQR specifically focuses on the middle 50% of a dataset, which is defined by the first quartile (25th percentile) and the third quartile (75th percentile). This means that, regardless of how extreme or skewed the outlying values may be, the IQR will remain constant as long as the central 50% of the data is unchanged.

This characteristic makes the IQR a robust measure of variability that reflects the spread of the data around the median, rather than being affected by the length of the tails in a distribution. Other measures of dispersion, like the range or standard deviation, are sensitive to extreme scores, but the IQR provides a more stable representation of data consistency in the presence of outliers.