confounder
/kənˈfaʊndər/
noun
- A person or thing that causes confusion or surprise.
- The magician's trick was a real confounder; no one could figure out how it worked.
- The sudden change in the schedule was a confounder for everyone in the office.
- Her unexpected answer was a confounder that left the teacher speechless.
- In statistics or research, a variable that influences both the independent and dependent variables, leading to a false association.
- The researcher identified smoking as a confounder in the link between coffee drinking and heart health.
- The study had to control for age as a confounder because older people were more likely to have the disease.
- Without accounting for the confounder of income, the results of the survey were misleading.