Suppose you are interested in how participants behave in different color conditions. You select 30 participants and assign them to one of three rooms. The rooms differ only with respect to the color of the walls. One room is white, one is pale blue, and a third is bright red. Each participant is served a meal of a hamburger and french fries, and you then measure how long it takes them to finish eating. What would be the independent variable in this study

The answer is the color of the room

Explanation:

In this study, the color of the room is the factor or variable that is modified by the researcher. Also, it is expected the color of the room affects participants' behavior but not the opposite. This shows the color of the room is an independent variable because this factor is not affected by other variables, and it modifies the dependent variable (behavior). Moreover, in studies, the independent variable is always the one that is changed by the researcher.