What type of variable is ‘gender?’

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Question restatement: The prompt asks, 'What type of variable is ‘gender?’' with four answer choices to choose from.

Option 1: continuous variable. A continuous variable is typically numeric and can take an infinite number of values within a range (e.g., height, temperature). Gender, however, is not a numeric measure with a meaningful continuum; it is categories, so this option is incorrect.

Option 2: dummy variable. A dummy variable is a binary indicator (often coded 0/1) used to represent the presence or absence of a attribute in statistical models. While gender can be represented as a dummy variable in data analysis, the raw, intrinsic type of gender is not inherently a dummy variable; it is a categorical value that can be encoded as dummy variables for modeling. Thus this option is misleading if interpreted as the primary type of the variable.

Option 3: dependent variable. A dependent variable is the outcome or response variable that models aim to predict or explain, typically measured after manipulations or observations. Gender is not inherently an outcome; many studies treat gender as an independent or grouping variable rather than something to be predicted. Therefore this option is not correct.

Option 4: categorical variable. A categorical (qualitative) variable represents discrete categories or groups, such as male, female, non-binary, etc. This aligns with how gender is commonly classified in data: non-numeric labels that denote category membership rather than a numeric measurement. This option accurately describes gender as a categorical variable.

Summary of common misconceptions: Some people might think of gender as numerical or as something that must be binary, but many datasets treat gender as nominal categories that do not have a natural order. While you can convert it to dummy variables for analysis, the fundamental type remains categorical. The other options reflect possible transformations or different roles in analysis but do not describe the inherent type of the variable as it is typically defined.

MKTG1047 Chapter 2

What type of variable is ‘gender?’

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