confounding variable
nounA confounding variable is something extra that can mess up a test and make it hard to tell what really caused the result.
The scientists forgot about the confounding variable of temperature, so they could not be sure if the medicine or the heat made the plants grow.
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2. In statistics, a variable that influences both the independent and dependent variables, creating a false apparent relationship.
Ice cream sales and drowning rates rise together, but temperature is a confounding variable affecting both.
3. Any factor in an observational study that was not accounted for and may distort the observed association.
Researchers adjusted for age as a confounding variable in the health survey.
4. A hidden influence in everyday reasoning that makes a cause-and-effect claim unreliable.
He blamed his bad mood on coffee, but lack of sleep was a confounding variable.