ANOVA, or Analysis of Variance, is a statistical test used to compare the means of three or more groups or datasets to determine if there are statistically significant differences between them. It’s a powerful tool to assess whether variations between groups are due to actual differences or if they could have occurred by chance. In the context of our dataset of police shooting records, here’s how you can use ANOVA:
Suppose if we want to analyze whether there are statistically significant differences in the ages of individuals involved in police shootings across different threat levels (e.g., “attack,” “other,” etc.). To do this, we must first divide our dataset into groups based on threat levels. Then, we could apply ANOVA to assess whether there are significant variations in the ages of individuals across these groups.
In this way, ANOVA helps you identify if there are meaningful distinctions in the ages of individuals involved in police shootings, which could provide valuable insights into whether certain threat levels are associated with specific age groups.