A researcher wants to assess the effects of varying amounts of alcohol on ratings of perception of friendliness. Three groups of people are given either 1, 2, or 3 beers to drink. Three more groups of people are given either 1, 2, or 3 non-alcoholic beers to drink. Then, all participants are shown a series of pictures of people's faces and are asked to rank the perceived friendliness of each face on a scale from 1 to 10. In this experiment, the independent variable is:

Question

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The independent variable is the amount of alcohol consumed. This is the variable that is being manipulated by the researcher, and is expected to have an effect on the ratings of perceived friendliness. The other variables, such as the number of groups or the pictures of faces, are either controlled or measured in the experiment, but are not being systematically varied.

A Researcher Wants to Assess the Effects of Varying Amounts