Example:WILCOXONTEST

Asurveycollectedinformationabouthowmuchstudentsspendwhenbuyingpresents
fordifferentpeople.Eachstudentrecordedtheamounttheywouldspendonapresent
forapartnerandalsowhenbuyingapresentforafriendofthesamesex.In
evolutionaryterms,wemightexpectstudentstospendmoreonthe(potential)
mothers/fathersoftheirchildrenthanonfriendsofthesamesex.
Toseehowtypicalspendingdifferswhenbuyingpresentsforpartnersratherthan
friendsinvolvesmakingacomparisonbetweentwosetsofmeasurements.The
dependentvariable,ormeasurementbeingcompared,iespending,isquantitative.The
comparisonismadebetweenpairedorrelatedsamplessincethesameindividuals
providedataonspendingonfriendsandpartners.Initiallythiswouldsuggestapairedt
testbutthisisaparametrictestandassumesthatthevariable
partvfriend=spendingonpartnerspendingonfriend
isNormallydistributed.Thediagrambelowplotsthedifferenceinspendingonpresents
forpartnersandfriendsforthestudentsinthesample.Youcanseethatthedistribution
isskewedandsodoesnotsupporttheassumptionthatthedifferencesareNormally
distributed.

14

12

Frequency

10

2
Mean=44.00
Std.Dev.=42.61317
N=35
0
0.00

50.00

100.00

150.00

partvfriedn

TheWilcoxontestisasuitabletesttousebecause:

(1)twopaired/relatedsamplesarebeingcompared(thesamepeopleansweredboth
questions)
(2)althoughthemeasurementbeingcompared(spending)isquantitativeitdoesnot
meettheassumptionsrequiredbyaparametrictest
Thetesthypothesesare:
Null(H0):medianspendingisthesamewhenbuyingpresentsforfriendsorpartners
Alternative(H1):medianspendingisnotthesamewhenbuyingpresentsforfriendsor
partners
WithSPSS,thetestoutputis:

NParTests
WilcoxonSignedRanksTest
Ranks
N
friendpresent
partnerpresent

NegativeRanks
PositiveRanks
Ties
Total

33a
1b
1c
35

MeanRank
17.89
4.50

SumofRanks
590.50
4.50

a. friendpresent<partnerpresent
b. friendpresent>partnerpresent
c.friendpresent=partnerpresent
TestStatisticsb

Z
Asymp.Sig.(2tailed)

friendpre
sent
partnerpr
esent
5.016a
.000

a. Basedonpositiveranks.
b. WilcoxonSignedRanksTest

TheteststatisticandthePvalue(labelledAsymp.Sig.(2tailed))areshowninthe
secondtable.ThezvaluemaybereportedbutonlythePvalueisneededtodecidethe
conclusion.SPSSdisplaysthePvaluetothreedecimalplacesothatverysmallP
valuesappearas0.000.Thesearenotreportedas0butas<0.001.
Inthiscase,P<0.001issmallerthan0.05hencethenullhypothesisisrejected.
Thehypothesistestallowsyoutosay:

Thedataprovidesstatisticallysignificantevidencethatstudentsmedianspendingon
partnersdiffersfrommedianspendingonfriendsofthesamesex(Wilcoxon,z=5.016,
P<0.001).
Note.AlternativeuseofWilcoxontest
AnothersituationinwhichtheWilcoxontestcanbeusedisforcomparingtworelatedor
pairedsampleswhenthevariablebeingcomparedbetweensamples(dependent
variable)isordinal.