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so I was looking back at this tutorial (https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/cluster/plot_kmeans_silhouette_analysis.html) and it struck me that the example with clusters=4, the one I would have chosen "visually" was not the one with the highest score. Instead n_clusters=2 was chosen, something I would not have chosen

enter image description here enter image description here below the scores (taken verbatim from the tutorial)

For n_clusters = 2 The average silhouette_score is : 0.7049787496083262
For n_clusters = 3 The average silhouette_score is : 0.5882004012129721
For n_clusters = 4 The average silhouette_score is : 0.6505186632729437
For n_clusters = 5 The average silhouette_score is : 0.56376469026194
For n_clusters = 6 The average silhouette_score is : 0.4504666294372765

what am I missing? what would I need to change to have the option with clusters=4 be the winning one?

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  • $\begingroup$ 1) Criterion vs eye. If data are interval, clusters are not infrequently discernible visually.... 2) There exist 100+ different internal clustering criteria. Silhouette is only one of them. Why not try other? Why not try, say, another version of Silhouette criterion, called "Deviation Silhouette aka Simplified Silhouette"? $\endgroup$
    – ttnphns
    Commented Oct 16, 2021 at 10:20
  • $\begingroup$ Yes at the end I have been trying a combination of different scores and it's working much better! $\endgroup$
    – Asher11
    Commented Oct 18, 2021 at 11:43

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