A lurking variable is a variable that is not included in an analysis but affects the relation between variables that are included. A lurking variable may act as a confounding variable, creating or obscuring an association between an independent variable and a dependent variable.
Lurking Variable
See also
Confounding Variable, Dependent Variable, Independent Variable, Observational StudyExplore with Wolfram|Alpha
References
Moore, D. S. and McCabe, G. P. Introduction to the Practice of Statistics, 4th ed. New York: W. H. Freeman, 2002.Cite this as:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Lurking Variable." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/LurkingVariable.html