Tables for the determination of the significance of skewness and of the significance of the difference in the skewness of two independent distributions

Several of the more popular statistics texts used in psychology are reviewed with respect to their treatment of the measurement and interpretation of skewness. Some areas in psychology where measures of skewness of distributions may yield significant information are indicated. Tables of 1%, 2% and 5% points of moment measures of skewness and tables of the 1% and 5% points of the difference in skewness of two uncorrelated distributions are presented. These tables are approximations based on the approximate normality of skewness in large samples from normal populations. The limited confidence with which these tables can be used in the absence of exact knowledge of the distribution function of the underlying statistics is indicated.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are not to be interpreted as official War Department policy.