Lefttailed

Lefttailed refers to a characteristic of a statistical distribution where the tail on the left side is longer or fatter than the tail on the right side. This indicates that extreme values are more likely to occur on the lower end of the distribution. In a left-tailed distribution, the majority of the data points are clustered towards the higher values, with a gradual decrease in frequency as values become smaller.

This type of skewness, also known as negative skewness, implies that the mean of the distribution is typically less than the median, which in turn is less than the mode. The median is the middle value when the data is ordered, while the mode is the most frequent value. The presence of a long left tail suggests that there are some unusually low values that pull the mean down.

Examples of distributions that can exhibit left skewness include the distribution of test scores where most students perform well but a few score very low, or the distribution of income in a population where most people earn a moderate amount, but a small number of individuals have exceptionally low incomes. Understanding left-tailedness is crucial for accurate data interpretation and for choosing appropriate statistical methods.