The Pew Research Center polled the American public about their attitudes toward guns in 2017. Researchers asked gun owners how important owning a gun was to their identity. They also asked respondents whether they thought that people who wanted to do harm would do so regardless of whether they had a gun or whether people who wanted to do harm are less likely to do so without a gun. Table 3.20 shows the relationship between the importance of gun ownership to respondents’ identities and attitudes about how guns affect whether people will do harm.

a. Which is the independent variable? Which is the dependent variable? How do you know?

b. Explain in words what the results tell us about the relationship between these two variables. Be sure to use specific examples from the table.