Why use mann-whitney U test rather than independent sample test?

why use non parametric mann-whitney U test rather than parametric independent sample test. I have a question regarding this because i just complete two question, as one I am using parametric tests, independent sample test, solve the mean selling price of a home with a conservatory different from the mean selling price of a home without conservatory. I also used non parametric tests, mann-whitney U test , these two test obtain the same result. can any one tell me why it's is most appropriate in testing the hypothesis using non-parametric mann-whitney U test? Thank you very much for your help. I will wait online. 4 years ago Report Abuse

Eliza

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Firstly, allow me to discuss the basic difference between assumptions made in the MannWhitney U test and the independent sample t-test. Parametric implies that a distribution is assumed for the population. Non-parametric implies that there is no assumption of a specific distribution for the population. You use the independent sample t-test when you want to test the mean between two groups of data. You use the Mann-Whitney U test when you want to test the median between two groups of data. Two independent sample t-test holds the following assumptions: 1) The populations follow normal distributions 2) The two independent samples are equal in size 3) The variances for both populations are identical (There are also t-test with unequal sizes and/or unequal variances, so assumptions to 2) and 3) can be voided.) Mann-Whitney U test holds the following assumptions: 1) The populations do not follow any specific parametrized distributions 1) The populations of interest have the same shape

2) The populations are independent of each other When the assumptions hold, the power of rejecting H when it is false is higher for a parametric test than for a corresponding nonparametric test with equal sample sizes. To put it simply, parametric tests have more statistical power than non-parametric tests. However, the nonparametric test results are more robust against violation of the assumptions. Thus, if assumptions are violated for a test based on a parametric model, then the conclusions based upon the parametric test may be more misleading than conclusions based upon nonparametric test. Also, Mann-Whitney U test is more appropriate when dealing with skewed data. This is because the parametric t-test are sensitive towards outliers or extreme values. When a data is skewed, then the position of the mean would be more towards the skewed part of the data. This condition is made more relaxed by the Mann-Whitney U test. But even if the assumptions for the independent sample t-test are well met, the Mann-Whitney U test is hardly less powerful with large enough sample size. Hence, whenever the validity of the parametric assumptions are potentially doubtful, Mann-Whitney U test is used instead. You said that you obtained the same result from both tests. What do you mean by same result? Is it that both tests produce the same hypotheses? i.e. for example, for independent sample t-test, mean is the same, and for Mann-Whitney U test, the median is the same? Or is it that the value of the mean equals the value of the median? Now, if the former is true, then it could be due to both of the data have the same shape/distribution, even if it's skewed. Therefore, the positions of the mean for both data would be similar, and this also goes to the median. Hence the result. In this case, the Mann-Whitney U test would be more appropriate than the independent sample t-test due to the skewness of the data (not normal), where the mean gives misleading value while the median gives more accurate value of central tendency. If the latter is true, then it is most likely that both data are bell-shaped. (i.e. the mean and the median lies in the centre of the bell-curve. Bell-curve implies normality and hence, assumptions for the independent sample t-test are justified. Now in this case, the independent sample t-test would be more appropriate than the Mann-Whitney U test. Another case when Mann-Whitney U test could be more appropriate than the independent sample t-test is when you use ordinal scale for your data. For example, you used 'Low' to represent $10000 below, 'Medium' to represent $10000-$25000 and 'High' to represent $25000 above. Then you assign 'Low'=1, 'Medium'=2, 'High'=3 (Ranking). So, depending on the situation, each test has its own pros and cons. In any case, whenever the assumptions for a parametric test are justified, there is no way that a non-parametric test will be more statistically powerful, and thus be more appropriate, than a parametric test.

Source(s):

(1) Gibbons, J.D. (1976). Nonparametric Methods for Quantitative Analysis. Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston. (2) M. Hollander and D.A. Wolfe (1973). Nonparametric Statistical Methods, John Wiley & Sons. (3) http://www.aiaccess.net/English/Glossari