What is the difference between Explanatory and Response vari

What is the difference between Explanatory and Response variable?

Solution

The response variable is the focus of a question in a study or experiment.

An explanatory variable is one that explains changes in the response variable; it can be any factor that might influence the response variable.

Let’s say you’re trying to determine if chemotherapy or anti-estrogen treatment is the better procedure for prolonging life for breast cancer patients.

The question is: which procedure prolongs life more? And so survival time is the response variable.

The type of therapy given (chemotherapy or anti-estrogen treatment) is the explanatory variable , it may or may not affect the response variable.