Confounding
(重定向自Confounding variables)
In statistics, a confounding variable (also confounding factor, a confound, or confounder) is an extraneous variable in a statistical model that correlates (directly or inversely) with both the dependent variable and the independent variable.
A spurious relationship is a perceived relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable that has been estimated incorrectly because the estimate fails to account for a confounding factor. The incorrect estimation suffers from omitted-variable bias.