bivariate versus multivariate

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bivariate versus multivariate
Message posted by Joan (via 146.203.198.85) on August 30, 2001 at 10:12 AM (ET)

Can a variable not correlated with the dependent variable in bivariate test ever have a significant relationship with the dependent variable when you include all the other variables you think should influence the outcome and run the multivariate model?
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Re: bivariate versus multivariate
Message posted by Jack Tomsky (via 208.249.113.130) on August 30, 2001 at 1:29 PM (ET)

The partial correlation between a pair of variables, conditional on a set of other variables, can definitely be nonzero, even if the simple correlation between the pair is zero. This can be seen by looking at the equation for partial correlations.

The partial correlation can be interpreted as the correlation between the residuals when you regress each of the two variables against the other set of variables.

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