Step 1: Determine whether the differences between group

means are statistically significant

To determine whether the differences between some of the means are statistically
significant, compare the p-value to your significance level to assess the null hypothesis.
The null hypothesis is that the group means are all equal. Usually, a significance level
(denoted as or alpha) of 0.05 works well. A significance level of 0.05 indicates a 5%
risk of concluding that a difference exists when there is no actual difference.

P-value : The differences between some of the means are

statistically significant
If the p-value is less than or equal to the significance level, you reject the null
hypothesis and conclude that not all of the group means are equal. You should
use your specialized knowledge to determine whether the difference is practically
significant.

P-value > : The differences between the means are not statistically
significant
If the p-value is larger than the significance level, there is not enough evidence to
reject the null hypothesis that the group means are all equal. You should make
sure that your test has enough power to detect a difference that is practically
significant. For more information, go to Increase the power of a hypothesis test.

Analysis of Variance
Source

DF

Adj SS

Adj MS

Paint

281.697917

93.8993056

Error

20

312.068333

15.6034167

Total

23

593.766250

F-Value
6.02

P-Value
0.0043

Key Result: P-value

In these results, the null hypothesis states that the mean hardness values of 4 different
paints are equal. Because the p-value is 0.0043, which is less than the significance level
of 0.05, you can reject the null hypothesis and conclude that some of the paints have
different means.
Return to top

Step 2: Examine the group means

Use the interval plot to display the mean and confidence interval for each group.
The interval plots show the following:

Each dot represents a sample mean.

Each interval is a 95% confidence interval for the mean of a group. You can
be 95% confident that a group mean is within the group's confidence
interval.

IMPORTANT
Interpret these intervals carefully because making multiple comparisons increases
the type 1 error rate. That is, when you increase the number of comparisons, you
also increase the probability that at least one comparison will incorrectly conclude
that one of the observed differences is significantly different.
To assess the differences that appear on this plot, use the grouping information
table and other comparisons output (shown in step 3).

In the interval plot, Blend 2 has the lowest mean and Blend 4 has the highest. You
cannot determine from this graph whether any differences are statistically significant.
To determine statistical significance, assess the confidence intervals for the differences
of means.
Return to top

Step 3: Compare the group means

If your one-way ANOVA p-value is less than your significance level, you know that
some of the group means are different, but not which pairs of groups. Use the
grouping information table and tests for differences of means to determine whether
the mean difference between specific pairs of groups are statistically significant
and to estimate by how much they are different.
For more information on comparison methods, go to Using multiple comparisons to
assess differences in means.

Grouping Information table

Use the grouping information table to quickly determine whether the mean
difference between any pair of groups is statistically significant.
Groups that do not share a letter are significantly different.

Tests for differences of means

Use the confidence intervals to determine likely ranges for the differences and to
determine whether the differences are practically significant. The table displays a
set of confidence intervals for the difference between pairs of means. The
interval plot for differences of means displays the same information.
Confidence intervals that do not contain zero indicate a mean difference that is
statistically significant.
Depending on the comparison method you chose, the table compares different
pairs of groups and displays one of the following types of confidence intervals.
Individual confidence level
The percentage of times that a single confidence interval includes the
true difference between one pair of group means, if you repeat the
study multiple times.

Simultaneous confidence level

The percentage of times that a set of confidence intervals includes the
true differences for all group comparisons, if you repeat the study
multiple times.
Controlling the simultaneous confidence level is particularly important
when you perform multiple comparisons. If you do not control the
simultaneous confidence level, the chance that at least one confidence
interval does not contain the true difference increases with the number
of comparisons.

For more information about how to interpret the results for Hsu's MCB, go
to What is Hsu's multiple comparisons with the best (MCB)?

Grouping Information Using the Tukey Method and 95% Confidence

Paint

Mean

Blend 4

18.0666667 A

Blend 1

14.7333333 A

Grouping
B

Blend 3

Blend 2

12.9833333 A
8.5666667

B
B

Means that do not share a letter are significantly different.

Key Results: Mean, Grouping

In these results, the table shows that group A contains Blends 1, 3, and 4, and
group B contains Blends 1, 2, and 3. Blends 1 and 3 are in both groups. Differences
between means that share a letter are not statistically significant. Blends 2 and 4
do not share a letter, which indicates that Blend 4 has a significantly higher mean
than Blend 2.

Tukey Simultaneous Tests for Differences of Means

Difference of
Levels

Difference of
Means

SE of
Difference

95% CI

TValue

Adjusted PValue

Blend 2-Blend
1

-6.167

2.281

(-12.553,
0.219)

-2.70

0.0606

Blend 3-Blend
1

-1.750

2.281

(-8.136,
4.636)

-0.77

0.8682

Blend 4-Blend
1

3.333

2.281

(-3.053,
9.719)

1.46

0.4779

Blend 3-Blend
2

4.417

2.281

(-1.969,
10.803)

1.94

0.2450

Blend 4-Blend
2

9.500

2.281

(3.114,
15.886)

4.17

0.0025

Blend 4-Blend
3

5.083

2.281

(-1.303,
11.469)

2.23

0.1495

Individual confidence level = 98.89%

Key Results: 95% CI, Individual confidence level

In these results, the confidence intervals indicate the following:

The confidence interval for the difference between the means of Blend 2
and 4 is 3.114 to 15.886. This range does not include zero, which
indicates that the difference is statistically significant.

The confidence intervals for the remaining pairs of means all include
zero, which indicates that the differences are not statistically significant.

The 95% simultaneous confidence level indicates that you can be 95%
confident that all the confidence intervals contain the true differences.

Each individual confidence interval has a confidence level of 98.89%.

This result indicates that you can be 98.89% confident that each
individual interval contains the true difference between a specific pair of
group means. The individual confidence levels for each comparison
produce the 95% simultaneous confidence level for all six comparisons.

Return to top

Step 4: Determine how well the model fits your data

To determine how well the model fits your data, examine the goodness-of-fit
statistics in the model summary table.

S
Use S to assess how well the model describes the response.
S is measured in the units of the response variable and represents the standard
deviation of how far the data values fall from the fitted values. The lower the
value of S, the better the model describes the response. If you compare different
models, the model that has the lowest S value indicates the best fit.

R-sq
R2 is the percentage of variation in the response that is explained by the
model. The higher the R2 value, the better the model fits your data. R2 is always
between 0% and 100%.
A high R2 value does not indicate that the model meets the model assumptions.
You should check the residual plots to verify the assumptions.

R-sq (pred)
Use predicted R2 to determine how well your model predicts the response for new
observations. Models that have larger predicted R2 values have better predictive
ability..
A predicted R2 that is substantially less than R2 may indicate that the model is
over-fit. An over-fit model occurs when you add terms for effects that are not
important in the population, although they may appear important in the sample
data. The model becomes tailored to the sample data and therefore, may not be
useful for making predictions about the population.
Predicted R2 can also be more useful than adjusted R2 for comparing models
because it is calculated with observations that are not included in the model
calculation.

Model Summary

R-sq

3.95011603

47.44%

R-sq(adj)

R-sq(pred)

39.56%

Key Results: S, R-sq, R-sq (pred)

In these results, the factor explains 47.44% of the variation in the response.
S indicates that the standard deviation between the data points and the
fitted values is 3.95011603 units.
Return to top

Step 5: Determine whether your model meets the

assumptions of the analysis
Use the residual plots to help you determine whether the model is
adequate and meets the assumptions of the analysis. If the assumptions
are not met, the model may not fit the data well and you should use
caution when you interpret the results.

Residuals versus fits plot

Use the residuals versus fits plot to verify the assumption that the
residuals are randomly distributed and have constant variance. Ideally,
the points should fall randomly on both sides of 0, with no recognizable
patterns in the points.
The patterns in the following table may indicate that the model does not
meet the model assumptions.

Pattern

Fanning or uneven spreading of residuals across fitted values

A point that is far away from zero

24.32%

In this residual versus fits plot, the points appear randomly scattered on the
plot. None of the groups appear to have substantially different variability
and no outliers are apparent.

Residuals versus order plot

Use the residuals versus order plot to verify the assumption that the
residuals are independent from one another. Because the plot displays
the observations in the order that they were entered into the worksheet,
patterns in the points may indicate that residuals near each other may
be correlated, and thus, not independent. Ideally, the residuals on the
plot should fall randomly around the center line.
The following patterns may indicate that the model does not meet the
model assumptions.

Pattern

An increasing or decreasing trend

Cyclical or repeating pattern

Pattern

A point that is far away from the other points

A sudden shift in the points

In the residual versus order plot, the residuals fall randomly around the
centerline.

Normality plot of the residuals

Use the normal plot of residuals to verify the assumption that the
residuals are normally distributed. The normal probability plot of the
residuals should approximately follow a straight line.
The patterns in the following table may indicate that the model does not
meet the model assumptions.

Pattern

Not a straight line

A point that is far away from the line

Changing slope
NOTE
If your one-way ANOVA design meets the guidelines for sample size in
the data considerations topic, the results are not substantially affected
by departures from normality.

In this normal probability plot, the residuals appear to generally follow a

straight line. From the residuals versus fits plot, you can see that there are
six observations in each of the four groups. Because this design does not
meet the sample size guidelines, it is important to satisfy the normality
assumption so that the test results are reliable.

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.

Minitabtop ^

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 ofcategorical 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.
Minitabtop ^

Example
An online retailer wants to get the best from its employees, as well
as improve their working experience. Currently, employees in the
retailers 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.
Minitabtop ^

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:

Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

Minitabtop ^

Test Procedure in Minitab

In this section, we show you how to analyse your data using a oneway 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

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.

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.

Click the

button. The output that Minitab produces is

shown below.
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.

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.
Minitabtop ^

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 variablesinclude 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 twoway 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.
Minitabtop ^

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 .
Minitabtop ^

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
independent variable,

we entered the name of the first

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:

Published with written permission from Minitab Inc.

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").
Minitabtop ^

Test Procedure in Minitab

In this section, we show you how to analyse your data using a twoway 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

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 ).

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.

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 lefthand 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:

Click the

button. The output that Minitab produces is

shown below.
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).