The mean can be heavily influenced by which of the following?

The mean, a measure of central tendency, is calculated by summing all values in a data set and dividing by the number of values. It has the characteristic of being sensitive to extreme values, which are commonly referred to as outliers. These outliers can skew the mean significantly, either inflating or deflating it depending on their position relative to the rest of the data.

For instance, in a salary dataset where most employees earn between $40,000 and $60,000 but a few executives earn millions, the mean salary would be disproportionately high compared to the median compensation, which would better represent the majority of the employees' earnings. Therefore, outliers have a substantial impact on the mean, making it an important consideration when analyzing data distributions. While average salaries, median compensation, and standard deviation are important concepts in understanding a dataset, they do not inherently influence the calculation of the mean in the same way that outliers do.