Chapter 15, Problem 4RQE

Summary Introduction

Introduction:

A suppressor variable is one that conceals a relationship between other variables. For example, when studying the opioid crisis, a researcher might find increased prescriptions for pain management are related to patients gaining access to possible treatment information. A suppressor variable here could be the aggressive sales tactics of drug sales representatives. A distorter variable reverses the direction of a relationship between other variables. For example, one may argue that the corrections system is not biased, since more White people are in prison than Black people. A distorter variable reveals that Black men are disproportionately imprisoned more often than White people.