One-way ANOVA using Minitab

Introduction

The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to determine whether the mean of a
dependent variable is the same in two or more unrelated, independent groups of an independent
variable. However, it is typically only used when you have three or more independent, unrelated
groups, since an independent t-test is more commonly used when you have just two groups. If
you have more than one dependent variable, you might need a one-way MANOVA.

For example, you can use a one-way ANOVA to determine whether weight loss is best
achieved through exercise, diet, or exercise and diet combined (i.e., your dependent variable
would be "weight loss", measured in kilograms, and your independent variable would be
"intervention type", which has three groups: "exercise", "diet and "exercise and diet").
Alternately, a one-way ANOVA could be used to understand whether there is a difference in
salary based on education level (i.e., your dependent variable would be "salary" and your
independent variable would be "education level", which has three groups: "high school",
"undergraduate degree" and "graduate degree").

When there is a statistically significant difference between the groups, it is possible to

determine which specific groups were significantly different from each other using a post hoc
test. You need to conduct a post hoc test because the one-way ANOVA is an omnibus test
statistic and cannot tell you which specific groups were significantly different from each other;
it only tells you that at least two groups were different.

This "quick start" guide shows you how to carry out a one-way ANOVA using Minitab, as well
as how to interpret and report the results from this test. However, before we introduce you to
this procedure, you need to understand the different assumptions that your data must meet in
order for a one-way ANOVA to give you a valid result. We discuss these assumptions next.

Minitab
Assumptions

The one-way ANOVA has six assumptions. You cannot test the first three of these assumptions
with Minitab because they relate to your study design and choice of variables. However, you
should check whether your study meets these three assumptions before moving on. If these
assumptions are not met, there is likely to be a different statistical test that you can use instead.
Assumptions #1, #2 and #3 are explained below:
 o Assumption #1: Your dependent variable should be measured on a continuous
level (i.e., it is an interval or ratio variable). Examples of such dependent variables
include height (measured in feet and inches), temperature (measured in °C), salary
(measured in US dollars), revision time (measured in hours), intelligence (measured
using IQ score), reaction time (measured in milliseconds), test performance (measured
from 0 to 100), sales (measured in number of transactions per month), and so forth. If you
are unsure whether your dependent variable is continuous (i.e., measured at the interval
or ratio level), see our Types of Variable guide.
o Assumption #2: Your independent variable should consist of two or more
categorical, independent (unrelated) groups. Examples of categorical
variables include gender (e.g., two groups: male and female), ethnicity (e.g., three
groups: Caucasian, African American and Hispanic), physical activity level (e.g., four
groups: sedentary, low, moderate and high), and profession (e.g., five groups: surgeon,
doctor, nurse, dentist, therapist).
o Assumption #3: You should have independence of observations, which means that
there is no relationship between the observations in each group or between the groups
themselves. For example, there must be different participants in each group with no
participant being in more than one group. If you do not have independence of
observations, it is likely you have "related groups", which means you will might need to
use a one-way repeated measures ANOVA instead of the one-way ANOVA.

Assumptions #4, #5 and #6 relate to the nature of your data and can be checked using Minitab.
You have to check that your data meets these assumptions because if it does not, the results you
get when running a one-way ANOVA might not be valid. In fact, do not be surprised if your
data violates one or more of these assumptions. This is not uncommon. However, there are
possible solutions to correct such violations (e.g., transforming your data) such that you can still
use a one-way ANOVA. Assumptions #4, #5 and #6 are explained below:

o Assumption #4: There should be no significant outliers. An outlier is simply a single

case within your data set that does not follow the usual pattern (e.g., in a study of 100
students' IQ scores, where the mean score was 108 with only a small variation between
students, one student had a score of 156, which is very unusual, and may even put her in
the top 1% of IQ scores globally). The problem with outliers is that they can have a
negative effect on the one-way ANOVA, reducing the accuracy of your results.
Fortunately, when using Minitab to run a one-way ANOVA on your data, you can easily
detect possible outliers.
o Assumption #5: Your dependent variable should be approximately normally
distributed for each group of the independent variable. Your data need only
be approximately normal for running a one-way ANOVA because it is quite "robust" to
violations of normality, meaning that this assumption can be a little violated and still
 provide valid results. You can test for normality using the Shapiro-Wilk test for
normality, which is easily tested for using Minitab.
o Assumption #6: There needs to be homogeneity of variances. You can test this
assumption in Minitab using Levene's test for homogeneity of variances. Levene's test is
very important when it comes to interpreting the results from a one-way ANOVA
because Minitab is capable of producing different output depending on whether your data
meets or fails this assumption.

In practice, checking for assumptions #4, #5 and #6 will probably take up most of your time
when carrying out a one-way ANOVA. However, it is not a difficult task and Minitab provides
all the tools you need to do this.

In the section, Test Procedure in Minitab, we illustrate the Minitab procedure required to
perform a one-way ANOVA assuming that no assumptions have been violated. First, we set out
the example we use to explain the one-way ANOVA procedure in Minitab.

Minitab
Example

An online retailer wants to get the best from its employees, as well as improve their working
experience. Currently, employees in the retailer’s order fulfilment centre are not provided with
any kind of entertainment whilst they work (e.g., no background music, television, etc.).
However, the retailer wants to know whether providing music, which a few employees have
requested, would lead to greater productivity, and if so, by how much.

Therefore, the researcher recruited a random sample of 60 employees. This sample of 60

participants was randomly split into three independent groups with 20 participants in each
group: (a) a "control group" that did not listen to music; (b) a "treatment group" who listened to
music, but had no choice of what they listened to; and (c) a second treatment group who
listened to music and had a choice of what they listened to.

The experiment lasted for one month. At the end of the experiment, the "productivity" of the
three groups was measured in terms of the "average number of packages processed per hour".
Therefore, the dependent variable was "productivity" (measured in terms of the average number
of packages processed per hour during the one month experiment), whilst the independent
variable was "treatment type", where there were three independent groups: "No music" (control
group), "Music - No choice" (treatment group A) and "Music - choice" (treatment group B).

A one-way ANOVA was used to determine whether there was a statistically significant
difference in productivity between the three independent groups.
 Note: The example and data used for this guide are fictitious. We have just created them for
the purposes of this guide.

Minitab
Setup in Minitab

In Minitab, under column we entered the the values of the dependent variable, which
we named Productivity , as follows: . Then, under column we entered the
name of the independent variable , Music , as follows: . The three groups of the
independent variable, Music , were: (a) "No music" for the control group; (b) "Music - No
choice" for the treatment group who listened to music, but had no choice of what they listened
to; and (c) "Music - Choice" for the treatment group who listened to music and had a choice of
what they listened to, as shown below:

Test Procedure in Minitab

In this section, we show you how to analyse your data using a one-way ANOVA in Minitab
when the six assumptions in the previous section, Assumptions, have not been violated. The
procedure changed from Minitab 16 to Minitab 17. Therefore, we present the procedure for both
below:

Minitab 16

1. Click Stat > ANOVA > One-Way... on the top menu, as shown below:

Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

You will be presented with the following One-Way Analysis of

Variance dialogue box:
 Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

2. Transfer the dependent variable, Productivity , into the Response: box and the
independent variable, Music , into the Factor: box. To do this, you first need to
click into the Response: box for the dependent variable to appear in the main left-
hand box (e.g., C1 Productivity ). This will activate the button (it is
usually faded: ). To transfer the variable into this box,
select C1 Productivity in the main left-hand box and press the button
or simply double-click on C1 Productivity . You now need to do the same
 for C2 Music , but this time into the Factor: box. You will end up with the
dialogue box shown below:

Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

3. Click on the button. The output that Minitab produces is shown below.

Minitab 17

1. Click Stat > ANOVA > One-Way... on the top menu, as shown below:
Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

You will be presented with the following One-Way Analysis of

Variance dialogue box:
 Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

2. Transfer the dependent variable, Productivity , into the Response: box and the
independent variable, Music , into the Factor: box. To do this, you first need to
click into the Response: box for the dependent variable to appear in the main left-
hand box (e.g., C1 Productivity ). This will activate the button (it is
usually faded: ). To transfer the variable into this box,
select C1 Productivity in the main left-hand box and press the button
or simply double-click on C1 Productivity . You now need to do the same
for C2 Music , but this time into the Factor: box. You will end up with the
dialogue box shown below:

Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

 3. Click on the button. The output that Minitab produces is shown below.

Minitab
Output of the one-way ANOVA in Minitab

The Minitab output for a one-way ANOVA includes many useful statistics, including
descriptive statistics for the groups that you compared. However, in this guide we focus on
the Analysis of Variance table which reports the statistical significance of the one-way
ANOVA, as shown below (for Minitab 17):

And for Minitab 16:

The statistical significance of the one-way ANOVA is found under the "P-Value" column ("P"
column in Minitab 16). You can see that the significance level is 0.004 (i.e., p = .004). Since
this is below 0.05 (i.e., p < .05), we can declare that the result is statistically significant. That is,
there is a statistically significant difference in the mean productivity between the three different
groups of the independent variable, Music (i.e., "No Music", "Music - No Choice" and "Music -
Choice").

Note: We present the output from the one-way ANOVA above. However, since you should
have tested your data for the assumptions we explained earlier in the Assumptions section,
you will also need to interpret the Minitab output that was produced when you tested for
 them. This includes: (a) the boxplots you used to check if there were any significant outliers;
(b) the output Minitab produces for your Shapiro-Wilk test for normality to determine
normality; and (c) the output Minitab produces for Levene's test for homogeneity of
variances. Also, remember that if your data failed any of these assumptions, the output that
you get from the one-way ANOVA procedure (i.e., the output we discuss above) might no
longer be valid and you will need to interpret the Minitab output that is produced when they
fail (i.e., this includes different results).

Minitab
Reporting the output of the one-way ANOVA

When you report the output of your one-way ANOVA, it is good practice to include:

o A. An introduction to the analysis you carried out.

o B. Information about your sample, including how many participants were in each group
of your independent groups (N) (N.B., this is particularly useful if the group sizes were
unequal or there were missing values).
o C. A statement of whether there were statistically significant differences between your
groups, including the observed F-value (F and F-Value for Minitab 16 and 17,
respectively), degrees of freedom (DF), and significance level, or more specifically, the
2-tailed p-value (P and P-Value for Minitab 16 and 17, respectively).

Based on the Minitab output above, we could report the results of this study as follows:

 General

A one-way ANOVA was conducted to determine if productivity in a packing facility was

different for groups with different physical activity levels. Participants were classified into three
groups: No music (n = 20), Music - No choice (n = 20) and Music - Choice (n = 20). There was
a statistically significant difference between groups as determined by a one-way ANOVA, F(2,
57) = 6.08, p = .004.

In addition to reporting the results as above, a diagram can be used to visually present your
results. For example, you could do this using a bar chart with error bars (e.g., where the errors
bars could be the standard deviation, standard error or 95% confidence intervals). This can
make it easier for others to understand your results. Furthermore, you are increasingly expected
to report "effect sizes" in addition to your one-way ANOVA results. Effect sizes are important
because whilst the one-way ANOVA tells you whether differences between group means are
"real" (i.e., different in the population), it does not tell you the "size" of the difference. Whilst
Minitab will not produce these effect sizes for you using this procedure, there is a procedure in
Minitab to do so.

Portions of information contained in this publication/book are printed with permission of

Minitab Inc. All such material remains the exclusive property and copyright of Minitab Inc. All
rights reserved.

Two-way ANOVA using Minitab

Introduction

The two-way ANOVA compares the effect of two categorical independent variables (called
between-subjects factors) on a continuous dependent variable. In this sense, it is an extension of
the one-way ANOVA. The common goal of a two-way ANOVA is to establish if there is an
interaction between the two independent variables on the dependent variable. An interaction
signifies that the effect of one of the two independent variables on the dependent variable is
dependent on the other independent variable.

For example, you could use a two-way ANOVA to understand whether there is an interaction
between physical activity level and gender on stress level (i.e., your dependent variable would
be "stress score", measured on a continuous scale, and your independent variables would be
"physical activity level", which has three groups – "low", "moderate" and "high" – and
"gender", which has two groups: "males" and "females"). Alternately, you could use a two-way
ANOVA to understand whether there is an interaction between physical activity level and
gender on blood cholesterol concentration in children (i.e., your dependent variable would be
"blood cholesterol concentration", measured on a continuous scale in mmol/L, and your
independent variables would be "physical activity level", which has three groups – "low",
"moderate" and "high" – and "gender", which has two groups: "males" and "females").

If you have a statistically significant interaction between your two independent variables on the
dependent variable, it is possible to run "simple main effects" to determine the effect of one
independent variable at each level of the other independent variable on the dependent variable
(e.g., perhaps students with a PhD in the biological sciences had a higher mean salary than
students with an undergraduate degree in psychology). We come back to "simple main effects"
later.

In this "quick start" guide, we show you how to carry out a two-way ANOVA using Minitab, as
well as interpret and report the results from this test. However, before we introduce you to this
procedure, you need to understand the different assumptions that your data must meet in order
for a two-way ANOVA to give you a valid result. We discuss these assumptions next.
 Minitab
Assumptions

The two-way ANOVA has six assumptions. You cannot test the first three of these assumptions
with Minitab because they relate to your study design and choice of variables. However, you
should check whether your study meets these three assumptions before moving on. If these
assumptions are not met, there is likely to be a different statistical test that you can use instead.
Assumptions #1, #2 and #3 are explained below:

o Assumption #1: Your dependent variable should be measured at the continuous level.
Examples of such continuous variables include height (measured in feet and inches),
temperature (measured in °C), salary (measured in US dollars), revision time (measured
in hours), intelligence (measured using IQ score), reaction time (measured in
milliseconds), test performance (measured from 0 to 100), sales (measured in number of
transactions per month), and so forth. If you are unsure whether your dependent variable
is continuous (i.e., measured at the interval or ratio level), see our Types of
Variable guide.
o Assumption #2: Your two independent variables should each consist of two or more
categorical, independent (unrelated) groups. Examples of categorical
variables include gender (e.g., 2 groups: male and female), ethnicity (e.g., 3 groups:
Caucasian, African American and Hispanic), physical activity level (e.g., 4 groups:
sedentary, low, moderate and high), and profession (e.g., 5 groups: surgeon, doctor,
nurse, dentist, therapist).
o Assumption #3: You should have independence of observations, which means that
there is no relationship between the observations in each group or between the groups
themselves. For example, there must be different participants in each group with no
participant being in more than one group. If you do not have independence of
observations, it is likely you have "related groups", which means you will need to use a
two-way repeated measures ANOVA instead of the two-way ANOVA.

Assumptions #4, #5 and #6 relate to the nature of your data and can be checked using Minitab.
You have to check that your data meets these assumptions because if it does not, the results you
get when running a two-way ANOVA might not be valid. In fact, do not be surprised if your
data violates one or more of these assumptions. This is not uncommon. However, there are
possible solutions to correct such violations (e.g., transforming your data) such that you can still
use a two-way ANOVA. Assumptions #4, #5 and #6 are explained below:

o Assumption #4: There should be no significant outliers. An outlier is simply a single

case within your data set that does not follow the usual pattern (e.g., in a study of 100
students' IQ scores, where the mean score was 108 with only a small variation between
 students, one student had a score of 156, which is very unusual, and may even put her in
the top 1% of IQ scores globally). The problem with outliers is that they can have a
negative effect on the two-way ANOVA, reducing the accuracy of your results.
Fortunately, when using Minitab to run a two-way ANOVA on your data, you can easily
detect possible outliers.
o Assumption #5: Your dependent variable should be approximately normally
distributed for each combination of the groups of the two independent variables.
Your data need only be approximately normal for running a two-way ANOVA because
it is quite "robust" to violations of normality, meaning that this assumption can be a little
violated and still provide valid results. You can test for normality using the Shapiro-Wilk
test for normality, which is easily tested for using Minitab.
o Assumption #6: There needs to be homogeneity of variances for each combination of
the groups of the two independent variables. You can test this assumption in Minitab
using Levene's test for homogeneity of variances.

In practice, checking for assumptions #4, #5 and #6 will probably take up most of your time
when carrying out a two-way ANOVA. However, it is not a difficult task, and Minitab provides
all the tools you need to do this.

In the section, Test Procedure in Minitab, we illustrate the Minitab procedure required to
perform a two-way ANOVA assuming that no assumptions have been violated. First, we set out
the example we use to explain the two-way ANOVA procedure in Minitab.

Minitab
Example

A researcher was interested in whether an individual's interest in politics was influenced by

their level of education and gender. Therefore, the dependent variable was "interest in politics",
and the two independent variables were "gender" and "level of education".

In particular, the researcher wanted to know whether there was an interaction between
education level and gender. Put another way, was the effect of level of education on interest in
politics different for males and females?

To answer this question, a random sample of 60 participants were recruited to take part in the
study – 30 males and 30 females – equally split by level of education: school, college and
university (i.e., 10 participants in each group). Each participant in the study completed a
questionnaire that scored their interest in politics on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher scores
indicating a greater interest in politics.
Participants' interest in politics was recorded in the variable, Interest in Politics , their gender in
the variable, Gender , and their level of education in the variable, Educational Level . In
variable terms, the researcher wanted to know if there was an interaction
between Gender and Educational Level on Interest in Politics .

Minitab
Setup in Minitab

In Minitab, we set up the three variables in columns , and .

Therefore, under column we entered the name of the dependent variable, Interest in
Politics , as follows: . Then, under column we entered the name of the
first independent variable, Gender , as follows: . Next, under column we
entered the name of the second independent variable, Educational Level , as
follows: . Finally, we entered: (a) the scores on the dependent variable, interest
in politics, for each participant scores into the Interest in Politics column; (b) the gender of
each participant – "Male" or "Female" – into the Gender column; and (c) the educational level
of each participant – "School", "College" or "University" – into the Educational Level column.
This is illustrated below:
 Note: You can also enter variables in numeric form. For example, in cells under
the Gender column, you could enter "1" instead of "Male" and "2" instead of "Female" (i.e.,
assuming that you decided to code "Male" as "1" and "Female" as "2").

Minitab
Test Procedure in Minitab

In this section, we show you how to analyse your data using a two-way ANOVA in Minitab
when the six assumptions in the previous section, Assumptions, have not been violated. The
procedure changed from Minitab 16 to Minitab 17. Therefore, we present the procedure for both
below:

Minitab 16

1. Click Stat > ANOVA > Two-Way... on the top menu, as shown below:
 Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

You will be presented with the following Two-Way Analysis of

Variance dialogue box:

Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

Note: The dependent variable will already be present in the main left-hand box
(e.g., C1 Interest in Politics ).

2. Transfer the dependent variable, Interest in Politics , into the Response: box, as
shown below:
 Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

Note: To transfer the dependent variable into the Response: box, simply double
click on it in the main left-hand box (e.g., C1 Interest in Politics ). Alternately,
you can click on the dependent variable once, which will activate
the button (it is usually faded: ), and then click on
the button. Your cursor should automatically be in the Response: box
when you open the Two-Way Analysis of Variance dialogue box for the first
time, but if not, you will first have to put your cursor into the Response: box
before you transfer the dependent variable.

3. Enter the first of the two independent variables, Gender , into the Row factor: box,
and the second independent variable, Educational Level , into the Column
factor: box.
Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

Note 1: To transfer the independent variables, you first need to click into the
relevant boxes – either the Row factor: box or the Column factor: box – for your
independent variables to appear in the main left-hand box
(i.e., C2 Gender and C3 Educational Level) (N.B., you will notice that there
may be other variables in this main left-hand box in addition to your two
independent variables, but you can just ignore these). You can now either select
the variable you want to transfer (e.g., C2 Gender in the main left-hand box into
the Row factor: box) by double-clicking on it or using the button, as you
did in Step 2 above.

Note 2: By default, Minitab uses 95% confidence intervals, which equates to

declaring statistical significance at the p < .05 level. If you want to change the
value of the confidence interval, simply enter the new value into the Confidence
level: box (e.g., a value of 99.0 would equate to declaring statistical significance at
the p < .01 level), highlighted in red below:
 4. Click on the button. The output that Minitab produces is shown below.

Minitab 17

1. Click Stat > ANOVA > General Linear Model > Fit General Linear
Model... on the top menu, as shown below:
Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

You will be presented with the following General Linear Model dialogue box:

Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

 Note: The dependent variable will already be present in the main left-hand box
(e.g., C1 Interest in Politics ).

2. Transfer the dependent variable, Interest in Politics , into the Response: box, as
shown below:

Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

Note: To transfer the dependent variable into the Responses: box, simply double
click on it in the main left-hand box (e.g., C1 Interest in Politics ). Alternately,
you can click on the dependent variable once, which will activate
the button (it is usually faded: ), and then click on
the button. Your cursor should automatically be in the Responses: box
when you open the General Linear Model dialogue box for the first time, but if
not, you will first have to put your cursor into the Responses: box before you
transfer the dependent variable.
3. Transfer the two independent variables, Gender and Educational Level , into
the Factors: box, as shown below:

Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

Note: To transfer the independent variables, you first need to click into
the Factors: box for your independent variables to appear in the main left-hand box
(i.e., C2 Gender and C3 Educational Level ) (N.B., you will notice that there
may be other variables in this main left-hand box in addition to your two
independent variables, but you can just ignore these). You can now either select
the variables you want to transfer (e.g., C2 Gender and C3 Educational Level )
in the main left-hand box into the Factors: box) by double-clicking on them or
using the button, as you did in Step 2 above.

4. Click on the button. You will be presented with the General Linear
Model: Model dialogue box, as shown below:
 Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

5. Highlight both independent variables in the Terms in the model: box by clicking
on them whilst holding down the shift-key. You will be presented with the
following screen:
 Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

6. Click on the second button (i.e., the button on the Cross factors, covariates,
and terms in the model line). This will add the interaction term between the two
independent variables into the Terms in the model: box, as shown below:
 Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

7. Click on the button and you will be returned to the General Linear
Model dialogue box.

8. Click on the button. The output that Minitab produces is shown

below:

Minitab
Output of the two-way ANOVA in Minitab

The Minitab 16 output for a two-way ANOVA is shown below:

And for Minitab 17 it is very similar (only the output relevant for this guide is shown here):

Both tables shown the effect of Gender, Educational Level and their interaction (i.e., the
"Interaction" row in Minitab 16 and the "Gender*Educational Level" row in Minitab 17).
The most important effect, and the effect you should look at first, is the interaction effect. You
can see that the interaction effect is statistically significant because p = .0014 (i.e., the value in
the "P" and "P-Value" columns in Minitab 16 and 17, respectively). You may want to report the
results of Gender and Educational Level as well, but in the presence of an interaction, they are
seldom interpreted and reported. The meaning of a statistically significant interaction is that the
effect of Gender on Interest in Politics is dependent on Education Level (and vice versa); that is,
the effect of Education Level on Interest in Politics is dependent on Gender. Due to this
statistically significant interaction, you will also need to report simple main effects; that is, the
effect of an independent variable at each level of the other independent variable. In our
example, this would involve determining the mean difference in interest in politics between
genders at each educational level, as well as between educational level for each gender (e.g.,
perhaps females with a university education had a greater interest in politics than males with a
school education). Alternately, if you do not have a statistically significant interaction, you can
report the main effects instead. Both the simple main effects and main effects can be calculated
using Minitab.

Note: We present the output from the two-way ANOVA above. However, since you should
have tested your data for the assumptions we explained earlier in the Assumptions section,
you will also need to interpret the Minitab output that was produced when you tested for
 them. This includes: (a) the boxplots you used to check if there were any significant outliers;
(b) the output Minitab produces for your Shapiro-Wilk test for normality to determine
normality; and (c) the output Minitab produces for your Levene's test to determine whether
there are homogeneity of variances. Also, remember that if your data failed any of these
assumptions, the output that you get from the two-way ANOVA procedure (i.e., the output
we discuss above) might no longer be valid, and you will need to interpret the Minitab output
that is produced when they fail (i.e., this includes different results).

Minitab
Reporting the output of the two-way ANOVA

When you report the output of your two-way ANOVA, it is good practice to include:

o A. An introduction to the analysis you carried out.

o B. Information about your sample (including how many participants were in each of your
groups if the group sizes were unequal or there were missing values).
o C. A statement of whether there was a statistically significant interaction between your
two independent variables on the dependent variable, including the observed F-value
(F or F-Value in Minitab 16 or 17, respectively), degrees of freedom (DF), and
significance level, or more specifically, the 2-tailed p-value (P or P-Value in Minitab 16
or 17, respectively).
o D. If the interaction was statistically significant, a statement dealing with the results of
"simple main effects".

Based on the Minitab output above, we could report the results of this study as follows (N.B.,
we have also included an example of a simple main effect):

 General

A two-way ANOVA was run on a sample of 60 participants to examine the effect of gender and
education level on interest in politics. There was a significant interaction between the effects of
gender and education level on interest in politics, F (2, 54) = 4.64, p = .014. Simple main effects
analysis showed that males were significantly more interested in politics than females when
educated to university level (p = .002), but there were no differences between gender when
educated to school (p = .465) or college level (p = .793).

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