Fuzzy Mediation Analysis

A mediator variable is a variable that causes mediation in the dependent and the independent variables. The mediator variables play important roles in data analysis which involve several variables, especially when the dependent and independent variables are affected by other variables. Thus, mediation analysis is needed in almost all areas that need regression analysis especially in psychology, business, education, science, engineering area, etc. Mediation analysis has been proposed in many studies. However, sometimes it is much more reasonable to express the data using fuzzy theory when the variables are not clearly defined. For example, it is better to express the mood of a person “bad”, “moderate”, “good” using fuzzy numbers than using real numbers (crisp numbers). In this paper, several fuzzy mediation analysis models have been proposed. And confidence intervals and hypothesis tests are also provided. Several psychological data have been applied to find the total, direct and indirect effect when the mediator and confounding variable exist.