Getting started with multiple regression?
Simple linear regression will summarize the relationship between an outcome and a single explanatory element. However, in real life, things are not always so simple! We are going to use the adult dataset from UCI, which focuses on census data with a view to identifying if adults earn above or below fifty thousand dollars a year. The idea is that we can build a model from observations of adult behavior, to see if the individuals earn above or below fifty thousand dollars a year.
Multiple regression builds a model of the data, which is used to make predictions. Multiple regression is a scoring model, which makes a summary. It predicts a value between 0 and 1, which means that it is good for predicting probabilities.
It's possible to imagine multiple regression as modeling the behavior of a coin being tossed in the air. How will the coin land—heads or tails? It is not dependent on just one thing. The reality is that the result will depend on other variables...