A recent study showed a strong relationship between ice cream sales and the number of drowning deaths. As a result, the researchers conclude that ice cream causes people to drown and recommend that ice cream sales be closely regulated to minimize the number of drowning deaths. Common sense tells us that eating more ice cream doesn't normally cause more people to drown. There is possibly a third variable, perhaps temperature, that is related to both ice cream sales and the number of people swimming. Higher temperature leads to higher ice cream sales and more people swimming, potentially resulting in more drowning deaths. So, in this example, temperature is a hidden variable that could be the actual cause behind the observed results. Such a variable is called a:
Dependent Variable
Independent Variable
Confounding Variable
Random Variable