# How to Interpret Excess Kurtosis and Skewness

The SmartPLS ++data view++ provides information about the excess kurtosis and skewness of every variable in the dataset. You can interpret the values as follows:

"Skewness assesses the extent to which a variable’s distribution is symmetrical. If the distribution of responses for a variable stretches toward the right or left tail of the distribution, then the distribution is referred to as skewed. Kurtosis is a measure of whether the distribution is too peaked (a very narrow distribution with most of the responses in the center)." (Hair et al., 2017, p. 61).

"When both skewness and kurtosis are zero (a situation that researchers are very unlikely to ever encounter), the pattern of responses is considered a normal distribution. A general guideline for skewness is that if the number is greater than +1 or lower than –1, this is an indication of a substantially skewed distribution. For kurtosis, the general guideline is that if the number is greater than +1, the distribution is too peaked. Likewise, a kurtosis of less than –1 indicates a distribution that is too flat. Distributions exhibiting skewness and/or kurtosis that exceed these guidelines are considered nonnormal." (Hair et al., 2017, p. 61).

Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., and Sarstedt, M. 2017. A Primer on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). 2nd Ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage