A kitchen sink regression is an informal and usually pejorative term for a regression analysis which uses a long list of possible independent variables to attempt to explain variance in a dependent variable. In economics, psychology, and other social sciences, regression analysis is typically used deductively to test hypotheses, but a kitchen sink regression does not follow this norm. Instead, the analyst throws "everything and the kitchen sink" into the regression in hopes of finding some interesting statistical pattern. The results of this type of regression may be interpreted inductively to suggest that the same pattern of relationships between independent and dependent variables will be found in other data, which can lead to hasty generalizations.
The kitchen sink regression is an example of the practice of data dredging.
Famous quotes containing the words kitchen and/or sink:
“I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes.
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.”
—Langston Hughes (1902–1967)
“Ambitious men spend their youth in rendering themselves worthy of patronage; it is their great mistake. While the foolish creatures are laying in stores of knowledge and energy, so that they shall not sink under the weight of responsible posts that recede from them, schemers come and go who are wealthy in words and destitute of ideas, astonish the ignorant, and creep into the confidence of those who have a little knowledge.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)