Question

Provide your own example of a situation where it would be appropriate to test for an interaction using a two-way independent ANOVA?

Answer 1

Interaction effects occur when the effect of one variable depends on the value of another variable

Imagine that we are conducting a taste test to determine which food condiment produces the highest enjoyment. We’ll perform a two-way ANOVA where our dependent variable is Enjoyment. Our two independent variables are both categorical variables: Food and Condiment.

Our ANOVA model with the interaction term is:

Satisfaction = Food Condiment Food*Condiment

To keep things simple, we’ll include only two foods (ice cream and hot dogs) and two condiments (chocolate sauce and mustard) in our analysis.

Given the specifics of the example, an interaction effect would not be surprising. If someone asks you, “Do you prefer ketchup or chocolate sauce on your food?” Undoubtedly, you will respond, “It depends on the type of food!” That’s the “it depends” nature of an interaction effect. You cannot answer the question without knowing more information about the other variable in the interaction term—which is the type of food in our example!

The p-values in the output below tell us that the interaction effect (Food*Condiment) is statistically significant. Consequently, we know that the satisfaction you derive from the condiment depends on the type of food.

On an interaction plot, parallel lines indicate that there is no interaction effect while different slopes suggest that one might be present. Below is the plot for Food*Condiment.

The crossed lines on the graph suggest that there is an interaction effect, which the significant p-value for the Food*Condiment term confirms. The graph shows that enjoyment levels are higher for chocolate sauce when the food is ice cream. Conversely, satisfaction levels are higher for mustard when the food is a hot dog. If you put mustard on ice cream or chocolate sauce on hot dogs, you won’t be happy!

Which condiment is best? It depends on the type of food, and we’ve used statistics to demonstrate this effect.