The shape of a distribution affects the relationship between the mean, median, and mode. In a unimodal and symmetrical distribution, all three measures are very close to each other at the peak. In a bimodal distribution, the mode aligns with the tallest peak, while the mean and median fall between the peaks. In a skewed distribution, the mean is pulled in the direction of the longer tail (the skew), causing it to differ from the median. For highly skewed data, the median is generally preferred because the mean becomes an inaccurate representation of the distribution's center.