In a study comparing effects of different video games on helping behavior, what is the independent variable?

• A. The students who were given the prosocial game
• B. The students given the neutral or antisocial game
• C. The kind of game given to the students
• D. The helping behavior of the students

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is what the researcher changes to see if it affects something else. In this study, the factor that is deliberately varied is the type of video game the students play—different game categories (prosocial, neutral, antisocial) are assigned to participants. That manipulated factor is the independent variable. The outcome the researchers measure is the students’ helping behavior, which is the dependent variable. So describing the kind of game given to the students correctly identifies the variable being manipulated, not the groups formed or the behavior observed.