A researcher is interested in the effect of violent media content on aggression. She is also interested to learn if men and women react identically to the same content. In this example, what type of variable is gender?
A) a connected variable
B) an independent variable
C) a dependent variable
D) a control variable

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Gender is a control variable because it is a variable that is controlled for in the experiment. In this case, the researcher is interested in the effect of violent media content on aggression, and she wants to make sure that any differences in aggression between men and women are not due to differences in gender. Therefore, she controls for gender by making sure that the number of men and women in each group is equal.

A Researcher Is Interested in the Effect of Violent Media