Correcting for collider effects and sample selection bias in psychological research.

Abstract

Colliders, variables that serve as a common outcome of an independent and dependent variable, pose a major challenge in psychological research. Collider variables can induce bias in the estimation of a population relationship of interest when (a) the composition of a research sample is restricted by scores on a collider variable or (b) researchers adjust for a collider variable in their statistical analyses, as they might do for confounder variables. Both cases interfere with the accuracy and generalizability of statistical results. Despite their importance, however, collider effects remain relatively unknown in psychology. This tutorial article summarizes both the conceptual and the mathematical foundation for collider effects and their relevance to psychological research, and then proposes a method to correct for collider bias in cases of restrictive sample selection based on Thorndike's Case III adjustment (1982). Two simulation studies demonstrated Thorndike's correction as a viable solution for correcting collider bias in research studies, even when restriction on the collider variable was extreme and the selected sample size was as low as N = 100. Bias and relative bias results are reported to evaluate how well the correction equation approximates targeted population correlations under a variety of parameter conditions. We illustrate the application of the correction method to a hypothetical study of intelligence and conscientiousness, discuss the applicability of the method to more complex statistical models as a means of detection for collider bias, and provide code for researchers to apply to their own research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).