Heavier Tails
Definition
Heavier tails refer to the phenomenon where the probability of extreme events occurring in a distribution is higher than what would be expected in a normal distribution.
Analogy
Imagine you are at a party and there's a game where people throw darts at a dartboard. In a normal distribution, most darts would hit near the center, but with heavier tails, more darts would hit towards the outer edges of the board, indicating a higher likelihood of extreme scores.
Related terms
Skewness: Skewness measures the asymmetry of a distribution. A positively skewed distribution has a longer tail on the right side, while a negatively skewed distribution has a longer tail on the left side.
Kurtosis: Kurtosis measures how peaked or flat a distribution is compared to the normal distribution. Higher kurtosis indicates heavier tails and more extreme values.
Outliers: Outliers are data points that significantly deviate from other observations in a dataset. They can contribute to heavier tails in distributions.
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