What Mutually exclusive is
Mutually exclusive in statistics is a term used when two events cannot happen at the same time. For example, if you were to flip a coin, the outcome of the flip can either be heads or tails; both events cannot occur at the same time, so they would be mutually exclusive.
Steps for Mutually Exclusive:
- Determine the sample space, which is the set of all possible outcomes.
- Determine the two events that are being considered.
- Establish whether the events are mutually exclusive or not. If the events have no outcomes in common, then they are mutually exclusive.
- If the events have some outcomes in common, then they are not mutually exclusive.
- Calculate the probability of the events occurring. The probability of mutually exclusive events is equal to the sum of their individual probabilities.
Examples
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When analyzing survey data, mutually exclusive categories can be used to ensure respondents are only able to select one answer to a particular question.
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When running a chi-square test, mutually exclusive categories are used to evaluate the independence of two categorical variables.
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When constructing a Venn diagram, mutually exclusive sets are used to illustrate the relationship between two or more sets of data.
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When running a regression analysis, mutually exclusive dummy variables are used to represent categorical independent variables.