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August 28

Why is Regression analysis called regression analysis?

Regression means to go back but I don't see what that has to do with regression analysis. 108.170.113.22 (talk) 16:42, 28 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This is explained in the history section of the article. This came from using the word "regression" for the phenomenon (also known as "regression towards the mean") that children go back to the average relative to their parents. The statistical procedures that came out of this observation have therefore been called "regression". -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 16:50, 28 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

That seems to be basically correct, in light of Regression_analysis#History. SemanticMantis (talk) 15:09, 29 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There goes my theory that people who do regression analysis are all thumb-suckers who wet the bed at night. :-) StuRat (talk) 00:05, 30 August 2014 (UTC) [reply]