Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My group and I are doing an observational experiment and unfortunately we are all coming up with different opinions on what the dependent and independent variables are.

The experiment question is: Are women more germ conscientious than men when it comes to disinfecting shopping carts at the grocery store?

Our hypothesis is: Women are more likely than men to use disinfectant wipes to clean their shopping cart prior to grocery shopping.

We can't decide if the cart is being manipulated by the shoppers or the wipes are being manipulated by the shoppers, or...what.

Thank you for your help in advance.

Hi,

This is a really interesting concept — something I’ve never thought of before.

Just as a quick definition, the independent variable is the variable you change on purpose. The dependent variable is the variable that changes and is studied as you change the independent variable.

In this case, the gender/sex of the individual observed is changed purposely to explore how gender affects germ consciousness, meaning it is independent. If you are limiting your research to just the shopping cart concept, the dependent variable may be how individuals perceive the threat of germs particularly in a grocery store; this is much more specific because you are unsure if there is another factor causing women/men to wipe their carts even if they are not more germ conscious in other environments. You can then, if desired, use your findings in order to make an inference about other environments.

I also would like to note that you may not be 100% sure of a person’s gender all the time. Sometimes it is difficult to tell or we make false assumptions. There are also individuals whose sex does not align with their gender and present according to how they identify, so this may play a role in your results even if you are unaware. This is something to keep in mind when gathering your results.

As well as this, it would be a good idea to talk to one of the store’s employees or representatives to make sure you don’t get in trouble for conducting research in their store.

As a review, my opinion is that the independent variable would be gender and the dependent would be the perception of the threat of germs in a grocery store.

I hope this helps! Feel free to ask any more questions

-Emma

Dependent and independent variables are actually quite simple to understand. An independent variable is what you change and is "independent," as it does not rely on anything else. A dependent variable "depends" on the independent variable to change it. The dependent variable is the variable that is studied to see if it has any effect on the experiment. Hope this helps!

Hello,
The Science Buddies Project Guide has a helpful section about variables (independent, dependent, and controls). That section also gives some examples which might help you.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... /variables

Let us know if this helps and be sure to post again if you have more questions.