Aresearcher created an experiment to find out what effect gender had on the starting salary a person was offered across different occupations and seniority levels. in this experiment, is the independent variable and is the dependent variable.

In an experiment, an independent variable is the one that is controlled in order to measure the effects of the dependent variable. The dependent variable is the one that is being tested or measured.

In this example, the dependent variable would be the salary, as that is the one that is going to be affected. The independent variable is the gender, as that is the one that researchers can control.