The point of this story? The amount of candy you collected in your zombie costume is known in statistics as the response variable. A response variable is the variable about which a researcher is asking a specific question. In our example, the variable was how much Halloween candy you collected. The response variable can be affected by many different factors, known as explanatory variables. Dependent Variable. The response variable is also known as the dependent variable. In other words, the response variable depends on another factor, known as the independent variable, to cause change, or response, to it. Here's an example: A college professor believes that playing the same soothing music both during class time and while students are taking a test will improve their scores.