Mann-Whitney U Test using SPSS

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Objectives
The Mann-Whitney U Test is used to compare differences between two independent groups
when the dependent variable is either (a) ordinal or (b) interval but not normally distributed. It is
the nonparametric alternative to the independent t-test.

Assumptions

Random samples from populations

The dependent variable is either ordinal, interval or ratio (see our Types of Variable
guide for help)

Samples do NOT need to be normally distributed

Example
A random sample of overweight, male individuals were recruited to a study to investigate
whether an exercise or weight loss intervention would be more effective at lowering blood
cholesterol levels in overweight men. To this end, researchers randomly split their sample group
into two equally-sized, smaller groups; one group underwent an exercise training programme and
the other group undertook a calorie-controlled, weight-loss diet. In order to determine which
treatment programme (exercise or diet) was more effective, cholesterol concentrations were
compared between the two groups at the end of the treatment programmes.

Setup in SPSS
In SPSS we separated the groups for analysis by creating a grouping variable called "Group"
and gave the exercise group a value of "1" and the diet group a value of "2". Cholesterol
concentrations were entered under the variable name "Cholesterol". To correctly setup your data
in SPSS to run a Mann-Whitney U Test please read our Entering Data in SPSS tutorial.

Testing Assumptions
Cholesterol concentration is measured on a continuous measurement scale (specifically, a ratio
scale) and thus meets the variable requirements for this test. However, having tested the
normality of the cholesterol data in the two treatments we have been able to conclude that one of
the groups is not normally distributed. Therefore, we cannot use an Independent T-Test and have

decided to run a Mann-Whitney U Test. The procedure for checking the normality of your data is
provided in our Testing for Normality guide.

Test Procedure in SPSS

1. Click Analyze > Nonparametric Tests > Legacy Dialogs > 2 Independent Samples...
on the top menu as shown below:

Published with written permission from IBM SPSS Inc.

2. You will be presented with the following screen:

Published with written permission from IBM SPSS Inc.

3. Move the dependent variable "Cholesterol" to the "Test Variable List:" box and the
independent variable "Group" to the "Grouping Variable:" box by using the
or by dragging-and-dropping the variables into the boxes.

Published with written permission from IBM SPSS Inc.

button

4. Make sure that the "Mann-Whitney U" checkbox is ticked in the "Test Type" area and
the "Grouping Variable:" box is highlighted in yellow (as seen above). If not highlighted
in yellow, simply click your cursor in the box.
5. Click on the
button. The button will not be clickable if you have not
highlighted the "Grouping Variable:" box as instructed in Point 4. You will be presented
with the following screen:

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Click through to the next page for the remaining procedure and how to interpret the output.

Mann-Whitney U Test using SPSS (cont...)

24
6. Enter the values "1" and "2" into the "Group 1:" and "Group 2:" boxes.

Published with written permission from IBM SPSS Inc.

Click on the

button.

[What are these numbers and why do I have to enter them? The numbers represent the
labels we gave to the exercise and diet treatment groups, respectively. The reason SPSS
asks you to enter them is because you might have more than two groups and you want to
analyse multiple combinations of groups (SPSS does not automatically analyse all

combinations of all groups). For example, your categories could be exercise (label = 1),
diet (label = 2) and drugs (label = 3) and, if you wanted to compare exercise to drugs you
would enter "1" and "3" into the Group boxes.]
7. If you wish to use this procedure to generate some descriptive statistics then click on the

button and then tick "Descriptive" and "Quartiles" within the "Statistics" area.
You will be presented with the dialog box below:

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Click the
button, which will bring you back to the main dialog box with the
"Grouping Variable:" box now completed as shown below:

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8. Click the

button, which will get SPSS to generate the output for the Mann-

Whitney U Test.

Ouput and Interpretation

SPSS will produce three tables of output from running a Mann-Whitney U Test as will be
described in the next three sections.
Descriptives
The Descriptives output table looks as follows:

Published with written permission from SPSS Inc., an IBM Company.

Although we have decided to show you how you can get SPSS to provide descriptive statistics
for the Mann-Whitney U Test they are not actually very useful. The reason for this is two-fold.
Firstly, in order to compare the groups we need the individual group values not the amalgamated
ones. This table does not provide us with this vital information, so we cannot compare any
possible differences between the exercise and diet groups. Secondly, we chose the MannWhitney U Test because one of the individual groups (exercise group) was not normally
distrbuted. However, we have not tested to see if the amalgamation of the two groups results in
the larger group being normally distributed. Therefore, we do not know whether to use the mean
and standard deviation or the median and interquartile range (IQR). The IQR is the 25th to 75th
percentile. This will act as a surrogate to the standard deviation we would otherwise report if the
data were normally distributed. We recommend that you ignore this table.
Ranks Table
This is the first table that provides information regarding the ouput of the actual Mann-Whitney
U Test. It shows mean rank and sum of ranks for the two groups tested (exercise and diet
treatment groups) as shown below:

Published with written permission from SPSS Inc., an IBM Company.

The above table is very useful as it indicates which group had the highest cholesterol
concentration; namely, the group with the highest mean rank. In this case, the diet group had the
highest cholesterol concentrations.
Test Statistics Table
This table shows us the actual significance value of the test (see below). Specifically, the "Test
Statistics" table provides the test statistic, U, value as well as the asymptotic significance (2tailed) P-value.

Published with written permission from SPSS Inc., an IBM Company.

From this data it can be concluded that there is a statistically significant difference between the
exercise and diet treatment group's median cholesterol concentration at the end of both
treatments (U = 110, P = 0.014). It can be further concluded that the exercise treatment elicited
statistically significant lower cholesterol concentrations than the dietary group (P = 0.016).
How to run a Mann-Whitney test using SPSS's new nonparametric procedure is explained in our
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