Why is PCA sensitive to outliers?





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There are many posts on this SE that discuss robust approaches to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) but I cannot find a single good explanation of why PCA is sensitive to outliers in the first place?










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    up vote
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    down vote

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    There are many posts on this SE that discuss robust approaches to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) but I cannot find a single good explanation of why PCA is sensitive to outliers in the first place?










    share|cite|improve this question









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      up vote
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      down vote

      favorite
      1









      up vote
      4
      down vote

      favorite
      1






      1





      There are many posts on this SE that discuss robust approaches to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) but I cannot find a single good explanation of why PCA is sensitive to outliers in the first place?










      share|cite|improve this question









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      Psi is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
      Check out our Code of Conduct.











      There are many posts on this SE that discuss robust approaches to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) but I cannot find a single good explanation of why PCA is sensitive to outliers in the first place?







      machine-learning pca outliers






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          One of the reasons is that PCA can be thought as low-rank decomposition of the data that minimizes the sum of $L_2$ norms of the residuals of the decomposition. I.e. if $Y$ is your data ($m$ vectors of $n$ dimensions), and $X$ is the PCA basis ($k$ vectors of $n$ dimensions), then the decomposition will strictly minimize
          $$lVert Y-XA rVert^2_F = sum_{j=1}^{m} lVert Y_j - X A_{j.} rVert^2 $$
          Here $A$ is the matrix of coefficients of PCA decomposition and $lVert
          cdot rVert_F$
          is a Frobenius norm of the matrix



          Because the PCA minimizes the $L_2$ norms (i.e. quadratic norms) it has the same issues a least-squares or fitting a Gaussian by being sensitive to outliers.






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          • Thank you so much, what an awesome reply! This was exactly what I was looking for and everything makes so much sense the way you explained it!!
            – Psi
            38 mins ago











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          up vote
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          down vote



          accepted










          One of the reasons is that PCA can be thought as low-rank decomposition of the data that minimizes the sum of $L_2$ norms of the residuals of the decomposition. I.e. if $Y$ is your data ($m$ vectors of $n$ dimensions), and $X$ is the PCA basis ($k$ vectors of $n$ dimensions), then the decomposition will strictly minimize
          $$lVert Y-XA rVert^2_F = sum_{j=1}^{m} lVert Y_j - X A_{j.} rVert^2 $$
          Here $A$ is the matrix of coefficients of PCA decomposition and $lVert
          cdot rVert_F$
          is a Frobenius norm of the matrix



          Because the PCA minimizes the $L_2$ norms (i.e. quadratic norms) it has the same issues a least-squares or fitting a Gaussian by being sensitive to outliers.






          share|cite|improve this answer























          • Thank you so much, what an awesome reply! This was exactly what I was looking for and everything makes so much sense the way you explained it!!
            – Psi
            38 mins ago















          up vote
          5
          down vote



          accepted










          One of the reasons is that PCA can be thought as low-rank decomposition of the data that minimizes the sum of $L_2$ norms of the residuals of the decomposition. I.e. if $Y$ is your data ($m$ vectors of $n$ dimensions), and $X$ is the PCA basis ($k$ vectors of $n$ dimensions), then the decomposition will strictly minimize
          $$lVert Y-XA rVert^2_F = sum_{j=1}^{m} lVert Y_j - X A_{j.} rVert^2 $$
          Here $A$ is the matrix of coefficients of PCA decomposition and $lVert
          cdot rVert_F$
          is a Frobenius norm of the matrix



          Because the PCA minimizes the $L_2$ norms (i.e. quadratic norms) it has the same issues a least-squares or fitting a Gaussian by being sensitive to outliers.






          share|cite|improve this answer























          • Thank you so much, what an awesome reply! This was exactly what I was looking for and everything makes so much sense the way you explained it!!
            – Psi
            38 mins ago













          up vote
          5
          down vote



          accepted







          up vote
          5
          down vote



          accepted






          One of the reasons is that PCA can be thought as low-rank decomposition of the data that minimizes the sum of $L_2$ norms of the residuals of the decomposition. I.e. if $Y$ is your data ($m$ vectors of $n$ dimensions), and $X$ is the PCA basis ($k$ vectors of $n$ dimensions), then the decomposition will strictly minimize
          $$lVert Y-XA rVert^2_F = sum_{j=1}^{m} lVert Y_j - X A_{j.} rVert^2 $$
          Here $A$ is the matrix of coefficients of PCA decomposition and $lVert
          cdot rVert_F$
          is a Frobenius norm of the matrix



          Because the PCA minimizes the $L_2$ norms (i.e. quadratic norms) it has the same issues a least-squares or fitting a Gaussian by being sensitive to outliers.






          share|cite|improve this answer














          One of the reasons is that PCA can be thought as low-rank decomposition of the data that minimizes the sum of $L_2$ norms of the residuals of the decomposition. I.e. if $Y$ is your data ($m$ vectors of $n$ dimensions), and $X$ is the PCA basis ($k$ vectors of $n$ dimensions), then the decomposition will strictly minimize
          $$lVert Y-XA rVert^2_F = sum_{j=1}^{m} lVert Y_j - X A_{j.} rVert^2 $$
          Here $A$ is the matrix of coefficients of PCA decomposition and $lVert
          cdot rVert_F$
          is a Frobenius norm of the matrix



          Because the PCA minimizes the $L_2$ norms (i.e. quadratic norms) it has the same issues a least-squares or fitting a Gaussian by being sensitive to outliers.







          share|cite|improve this answer














          share|cite|improve this answer



          share|cite|improve this answer








          edited 32 mins ago









          dsaxton

          9,39811535




          9,39811535










          answered 47 mins ago









          sega_sai

          43538




          43538












          • Thank you so much, what an awesome reply! This was exactly what I was looking for and everything makes so much sense the way you explained it!!
            – Psi
            38 mins ago


















          • Thank you so much, what an awesome reply! This was exactly what I was looking for and everything makes so much sense the way you explained it!!
            – Psi
            38 mins ago
















          Thank you so much, what an awesome reply! This was exactly what I was looking for and everything makes so much sense the way you explained it!!
          – Psi
          38 mins ago




          Thank you so much, what an awesome reply! This was exactly what I was looking for and everything makes so much sense the way you explained it!!
          – Psi
          38 mins ago










          Psi is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










           

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