Package ‘interactions’

July 29, 2024

Type Package
Title Comprehensive, User-Friendly Toolkit for Probing Interactions
Version 1.2.0
Description A suite of functions for conducting and interpreting analysis
of statistical interaction in regression models that was formerly part of the
'jtools' package. Functionality includes visualization of two- and three-way
interactions among continuous and/or categorical variables as well as
calculation of ``simple slopes'' and Johnson-Neyman intervals (see e.g.,
Bauer & Curran, 2005 <doi:10.1207/s15327906mbr4003_5>). These
capabilities are implemented for generalized linear models in addition to the
standard linear regression context.

URL https://interactions.jacob-long.com

BugReports https://github.com/jacob-long/interactions/issues
License MIT + file LICENSE
Encoding UTF-8
Imports ggplot2 (>= 3.4.0), cli, generics, broom, jtools (>= 2.0.3),
rlang (>= 0.3.0), tibble
Suggests cowplot, broom.mixed, glue, huxtable (>= 3.0.0), lme4,
margins, sandwich, survey, knitr, rmarkdown, testthat, vdiffr
Enhances brms, rstanarm
VignetteBuilder knitr
RoxygenNote 7.3.2.9000
NeedsCompilation no
Author Jacob A. Long [aut, cre] (<https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1582-6214>)
Maintainer Jacob A. Long <[email protected]>
Repository CRAN
Date/Publication 2024-07-29 21:40:06 UTC

1
2 as_huxtable.sim_margins

Contents
as_huxtable.sim_margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
as_huxtable.sim_slopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
cat_plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
interact_plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
johnson_neyman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
plot.sim_margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
plot.sim_slopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
probe_interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
sim_margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
sim_slopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
tidy.sim_margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
tidy.sim_slopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Index 30

as_huxtable.sim_margins
Create tabular output for simple margins analysis

Description
This function converts a sim_margins object into a huxtable object, making it suitable for use in
external documents.

Usage
as_huxtable.sim_margins(
x,
format = "{estimate} ({std.error})",
sig.levels = c(`***` = 0.001, `**` = 0.01, `*` = 0.05, `#` = 0.1),
digits = getOption("jtools-digits", 2),
conf.level = 0.95,
intercept = attr(x, "cond.int"),
int.format = format,
...
)

Arguments
x A sim_margins object.
format The method for sharing the slope and associated uncertainty. Default is "{estimate}
({std.error})". See the instructions for the error_format argument of jtools::export_summs()
for more on your options.
sig.levels A named vector in which the values are potential p value thresholds and the
names are significance markers (e.g., "*") for when p values are below the
threshold. Default is c(`***` = .001, `**` = .01, `*` = .05, `#` = .1).
as_huxtable.sim_slopes 3

digits How many digits should the outputted table round to? Default is 2.
conf.level How wide the confidence interval should be, if it is used. .95 (95% interval) is
the default.
intercept Should conditional intercepts be included? Default is whatever the cond.int
argument to x was.
int.format If conditional intercepts were requested, how should they be formatted? Default
is the same as format.
... Ignored.

Details
For more on what you can do with a huxtable, see huxtable.

as_huxtable.sim_slopes
Create tabular output for simple slopes analysis

Description
This function converts a sim_slopes object into a huxtable object, making it suitable for use in
external documents.

Usage
as_huxtable.sim_slopes(
x,
format = "{estimate} ({std.error})",
sig.levels = c(`***` = 0.001, `**` = 0.01, `*` = 0.05, `#` = 0.1),
digits = getOption("jtools-digits", 2),
conf.level = 0.95,
intercept = attr(x, "cond.int"),
int.format = format,
...
)

Arguments
x The sim_slopes() object.
format The method for sharing the slope and associated uncertainty. Default is "{estimate}
({std.error})". See the instructions for the error_format argument of jtools::export_summs()
for more on your options.
sig.levels A named vector in which the values are potential p value thresholds and the
names are significance markers (e.g., "*") for when p values are below the
threshold. Default is c(`***` = .001, `**` = .01, `*` = .05, `#` = .1).
digits How many digits should the outputted table round to? Default is 2.
4 cat_plot

conf.level How wide the confidence interval should be, if it is used. .95 (95% interval) is
the default.
intercept Should conditional intercepts be included? Default is whatever the cond.int
argument to x was.
int.format If conditional intercepts were requested, how should they be formatted? Default
is the same as format.
... Ignored.

Details
For more on what you can do with a huxtable, see huxtable.

cat_plot Plot interaction effects between categorical predictors.

Description
cat_plot is a complementary function to interact_plot() that is designed for plotting interac-
tions when both predictor and moderator(s) are categorical (or, in R terms, factors).

Usage
cat_plot(
model,
pred,
modx = NULL,
mod2 = NULL,
data = NULL,
geom = c("point", "line", "bar"),
pred.values = NULL,
modx.values = NULL,
mod2.values = NULL,
interval = TRUE,
plot.points = FALSE,
point.shape = FALSE,
vary.lty = FALSE,
centered = "all",
int.type = c("confidence", "prediction"),
int.width = 0.95,
line.thickness = 1.1,
point.size = 1.5,
pred.point.size = 3.5,
jitter = 0.1,
geom.alpha = NULL,
dodge.width = NULL,
errorbar.width = NULL,
cat_plot 5

interval.geom = c("errorbar", "linerange"),

outcome.scale = "response",
robust = FALSE,
cluster = NULL,
vcov = NULL,
pred.labels = NULL,
modx.labels = NULL,
mod2.labels = NULL,
set.offset = 1,
x.label = NULL,
y.label = NULL,
main.title = NULL,
legend.main = NULL,
colors = NULL,
partial.residuals = FALSE,
point.alpha = 0.6,
color.class = NULL,
at = NULL,
...
)

Arguments
model A regression model. The function is tested with lm, glm, svyglm, merMod, rq,
brmsfit, stanreg models. Models from other classes may work as well but are
not officially supported. The model should include the interaction of interest.
pred A categorical predictor variable that will appear on the x-axis. Note that it is
evaluated using rlang, so programmers can use the !! syntax to pass variables
instead of the verbatim names.
modx A categorical moderator variable.
mod2 For three-way interactions, the second categorical moderator.
data Optional, default is NULL. You may provide the data used to fit the model. This
can be a better way to get mean values for centering and can be crucial for mod-
els with variable transformations in the formula (e.g., log(x)) or polynomial
terms (e.g., poly(x, 2)). You will see a warning if the function detects prob-
lems that would likely be solved by providing the data with this argument and
the function will attempt to retrieve the original data from the global environ-
ment.
geom What type of plot should this be? There are several options here since the best
way to visualize categorical interactions varies by context. Here are the options:
• "point": The default. Simply plot the point estimates. You may want to
use point.shape = TRUE with this and you should also consider interval
= TRUE to visualize uncertainty.
• "line": This connects observations across levels of the pred variable with
a line. This is a good option when the pred variable is ordinal (ordered).
You may still consider point.shape = TRUE and interval = TRUE is still a
good idea.
6 cat_plot

• "bar": A bar chart. Some call this a "dynamite plot." Many applied re-
searchers advise against this type of plot because it does not represent the
distribution of the observed data or the uncertainty of the predictions very
well. It is best to at least use the interval = TRUE argument with this geom.
pred.values Which values of the predictor should be included in the plot? By default, all
levels are included.
modx.values For which values of the moderator should lines be plotted? There are two basic
options:
• A vector of values (e.g., c(1, 2, 3))
• A single argument asking to calculate a set of values. See details below.
Default is NULL. If NULL (or mean-plus-minus), then the customary +/- 1 stan-
dard deviation from the mean as well as the mean itself are used for continuous
moderators. If "plus-minus", plots lines when the moderator is at +/- 1 stan-
dard deviation without the mean. You may also choose "terciles" to split the
data into equally-sized groups and choose the point at the mean of each of those
groups.
If the moderator is a factor variable and modx.values is NULL, each level of
the factor is included. You may specify any subset of the factor levels (e.g.,
c("Level 1", "Level 3")) as long as there is more than 1. The levels will be
plotted in the order you provide them, so this can be used to reorder levels as
well.
mod2.values For which values of the second moderator should the plot be facetted by? That
is, there will be a separate plot for each level of this moderator. Defaults are the
same as modx.values.
interval Logical. If TRUE, plots confidence/prediction intervals.
plot.points Logical. If TRUE, plots the actual data points as a scatterplot on top of the in-
teraction lines. Note that if geom = "bar", this will cause the bars to become
transparent so you can see the points.
point.shape For plotted points—either of observed data or predicted values with the "point"
or "line" geoms—should the shape of the points vary by the values of the factor?
This is especially useful if you aim to be black and white printing- or colorblind-
friendly.
vary.lty Should the resulting plot have different shapes for each line in addition to colors?
Defaults to TRUE.
centered A vector of quoted variable names that are to be mean-centered. If "all", all
non-focal predictors are centered. You may instead pass a character vector of
variables to center. User can also use "none" to base all predictions on vari-
ables set at 0. The response variable, pred, modx, and mod2 variables are never
centered.
int.type Type of interval to plot. Options are "confidence" or "prediction". Default is
confidence interval.
int.width How large should the interval be, relative to the standard error? The default,
.95, corresponds to roughly 1.96 standard errors and a .05 alpha level for values
outside the range. In other words, for a confidence interval, .95 is analogous to
a 95% confidence interval.
cat_plot 7

line.thickness How thick should the plotted lines be? Default is 1.

point.size What size should be used for observed data when plot.points is TRUE? De-
fault is 1.5.
pred.point.size
If TRUE and geom is "point" or "line", sets the size of the predicted points.
Default is 3.5. Note the distinction from point.size, which refers to the ob-
served data points.
jitter How much should plot.points observed values be "jittered" via ggplot2::position_jitter()?
When there are many points near each other, jittering moves them a small amount
to keep them from totally overlapping. In some cases, though, it can add confu-
sion since it may make points appear to be outside the boundaries of observed
values or cause other visual issues. Default is 0.1, but increase as needed if your
points are overlapping too much or set to 0 for no jitter. If the argument is a
vector with two values, then the first is assumed to be the jitter for width and the
second for the height.
geom.alpha What should the alpha aesthetic be for the plotted lines/bars? Default is NULL,
which means it is set depending on the value of geom and plot.points.
dodge.width What should the width argument to ggplot2::position_dodge() be? Default
is NULL, which means it is set depending on the value of geom.
errorbar.width How wide should the error bars be? Default is NULL, meaning it is set depend-
ing on the value geom. Ignored if interval is FALSE.
interval.geom For categorical by categorical interactions. One of "errorbar" or "linerange". If
the former, ggplot2::geom_errorbar() is used. If the latter, ggplot2::geom_linerange()
is used.
outcome.scale For nonlinear models (i.e., GLMs), should the outcome variable be plotted on
the link scale (e.g., log odds for logit models) or the original scale (e.g., predicted
probabilities for logit models)? The default is "response", which is the original
scale. For the link scale, which will show straight lines rather than curves, use
"link".
robust Should robust standard errors be used to find confidence intervals for supported
models? Default is FALSE, but you should specify the type of sandwich stan-
dard errors if you’d like to use them (i.e., "HC0", "HC1", and so on). If TRUE,
defaults to "HC3" standard errors.
cluster For clustered standard errors, provide the column name of the cluster variable in
the input data frame (as a string). Alternately, provide a vector of clusters.
vcov Optional. You may supply the variance-covariance matrix of the coefficients
yourself. This is useful if you are using some method for robust standard error
calculation not supported by the sandwich package.
pred.labels A character vector of equal length to the number of factor levels of the predictor
(or number specified in predvals). If NULL, the default, the factor labels are
used.
modx.labels A character vector of labels for each level of the moderator values, provided in
the same order as the modx.values argument. If NULL, the values themselves
are used as labels unless modx,values is also NULL. In that case, "+1 SD" and
"-1 SD" are used.
8 cat_plot

mod2.labels A character vector of labels for each level of the 2nd moderator values, provided
in the same order as the mod2.values argument. If NULL, the values themselves
are used as labels unless mod2.values is also NULL. In that case, "+1 SD" and
"-1 SD" are used.
set.offset For models with an offset (e.g., Poisson models), sets an offset for the predicted
values. All predicted values will have the same offset. By default, this is set to
1, which makes the predicted values a proportion. See details for more about
offset support.
x.label A character object specifying the desired x-axis label. If NULL, the variable name
is used.
y.label A character object specifying the desired x-axis label. If NULL, the variable name
is used.
main.title A character object that will be used as an overall title for the plot. If NULL, no
main title is used.
legend.main A character object that will be used as the title that appears above the legend. If
NULL, the name of the moderating variable is used.
colors Any palette argument accepted by jtools::get_colors(). Default is "CUD
Bright" for factor moderators and "blue" for continuous moderators. You may
also simply supply a vector of colors accepted by ggplot2 and of equal length
to the number of moderator levels.
partial.residuals
Instead of plotting the observed data, you may plot the partial residuals (control-
ling for the effects of variables besides pred).
point.alpha What should the alpha aesthetic for plotted points of observed data be? Default
is 0.6, and it can range from 0 (transparent) to 1 (opaque).
color.class Deprecated. Now known as colors.
at If you want to manually set the values of other variables in the model, do so
by providing a named list where the names are the variables and the list values
are vectors of the values. This can be useful especially when you are exploring
interactions or other conditional predictions.
... extra arguments passed to make_predictions

Details
This function provides a means for plotting conditional effects for the purpose of exploring inter-
actions in the context of regression. You must have the package ggplot2 installed to benefit from
these plotting functions.
The function is designed for two and three-way interactions. For additional terms, the effects
package may be better suited to the task.
This function supports nonlinear and generalized linear models and by default will plot them on
their original scale (outcome.scale = "response").
While mixed effects models from lme4 are supported, only the fixed effects are plotted. lme4 does
not provide confidence intervals, so they are not supported with this function either.
Note: to use transformed predictors, e.g., log(variable), provide only the variable name to pred,
modx, or mod2 and supply the original data separately to the data argument.
interact_plot 9

Info about offsets:

Offsets are partially supported by this function with important limitations. First of all, only a single
offset per model is supported. Second, it is best in general to specify offsets with the offset argument
of the model fitting function rather than in the formula. You are much more likely to have success
if you provide the data used to fit the model with the data argument.

Value

The functions returns a ggplot object, which can be treated like a user-created plot and expanded
upon as such.

Examples
library(ggplot2)
fit <- lm(price ~ cut * color, data = diamonds)
cat_plot(fit, pred = color, modx = cut, interval = TRUE)

# 3-way interaction

## Will first create a couple dichotomous factors to ensure full rank

mpg2 <- mpg
mpg2$auto <- "auto"
mpg2$auto[mpg2$trans %in% c("manual(m5)", "manual(m6)")] <- "manual"
mpg2$auto <- factor(mpg2$auto)
mpg2$fwd <- "2wd"
mpg2$fwd[mpg2$drv == "4"] <- "4wd"
mpg2$fwd <- factor(mpg2$fwd)
## Drop the two cars with 5 cylinders (rest are 4, 6, or 8)
mpg2 <- mpg2[mpg2$cyl != "5",]
mpg2$cyl <- factor(mpg2$cyl)
## Fit the model
fit3 <- lm(cty ~ cyl * fwd * auto, data = mpg2)

# The line geom looks good for an ordered factor predictor

cat_plot(fit3, pred = cyl, modx = fwd, mod2 = auto, geom = "line",
interval = TRUE)

interact_plot Plot interaction effects in regression models

Description

interact_plot plots regression lines at user-specified levels of a moderator variable to explore

interactions. The plotting is done with ggplot2 rather than base graphics, which some similar
functions use.
10 interact_plot

Usage
interact_plot(
model,
pred,
modx,
modx.values = NULL,
mod2 = NULL,
mod2.values = NULL,
centered = "all",
data = NULL,
at = NULL,
plot.points = FALSE,
interval = FALSE,
int.type = c("confidence", "prediction"),
int.width = 0.95,
outcome.scale = "response",
linearity.check = FALSE,
facet.modx = FALSE,
robust = FALSE,
cluster = NULL,
vcov = NULL,
set.offset = 1,
x.label = NULL,
y.label = NULL,
pred.labels = NULL,
modx.labels = NULL,
mod2.labels = NULL,
main.title = NULL,
legend.main = NULL,
colors = NULL,
line.thickness = 1,
vary.lty = TRUE,
point.size = 1.5,
point.shape = FALSE,
jitter = 0,
rug = FALSE,
rug.sides = "b",
partial.residuals = FALSE,
point.alpha = 0.6,
color.class = NULL,
...
)

Arguments
model A regression model. The function is tested with lm, glm, svyglm, merMod, rq,
brmsfit, stanreg models. Models from other classes may work as well but are
not officially supported. The model should include the interaction of interest.
interact_plot 11

pred The name of the predictor variable involved in the interaction. This can be a
bare name or string. Note that it is evaluated using rlang, so programmers can
use the !! syntax to pass variables instead of the verbatim names.
modx The name of the moderator variable involved in the interaction. This can be a
bare name or string. The same rlang proviso applies as with pred.
modx.values For which values of the moderator should lines be plotted? There are two basic
options:
• A vector of values (e.g., c(1, 2, 3))
• A single argument asking to calculate a set of values. See details below.
Default is NULL. If NULL (or mean-plus-minus), then the customary +/- 1 stan-
dard deviation from the mean as well as the mean itself are used for continuous
moderators. If "plus-minus", plots lines when the moderator is at +/- 1 stan-
dard deviation without the mean. You may also choose "terciles" to split the
data into equally-sized groups and choose the point at the mean of each of those
groups.
If the moderator is a factor variable and modx.values is NULL, each level of
the factor is included. You may specify any subset of the factor levels (e.g.,
c("Level 1", "Level 3")) as long as there is more than 1. The levels will be
plotted in the order you provide them, so this can be used to reorder levels as
well.
mod2 Optional. The name of the second moderator variable involved in the interaction.
This can be a bare name or string. The same rlang proviso applies as with pred.
mod2.values For which values of the second moderator should the plot be facetted by? That
is, there will be a separate plot for each level of this moderator. Defaults are the
same as modx.values.
centered A vector of quoted variable names that are to be mean-centered. If "all", all
non-focal predictors are centered. You may instead pass a character vector of
variables to center. User can also use "none" to base all predictions on vari-
ables set at 0. The response variable, pred, modx, and mod2 variables are never
centered.
data Optional, default is NULL. You may provide the data used to fit the model. This
can be a better way to get mean values for centering and can be crucial for mod-
els with variable transformations in the formula (e.g., log(x)) or polynomial
terms (e.g., poly(x, 2)). You will see a warning if the function detects prob-
lems that would likely be solved by providing the data with this argument and
the function will attempt to retrieve the original data from the global environ-
ment.
at If you want to manually set the values of other variables in the model, do so
by providing a named list where the names are the variables and the list values
are vectors of the values. This can be useful especially when you are exploring
interactions or other conditional predictions.
plot.points Logical. If TRUE, plots the actual data points as a scatterplot on top of the inter-
action lines. The color of the dots will be based on their moderator value.
interval Logical. If TRUE, plots confidence/prediction intervals around the line using
geom_ribbon.
12 interact_plot

int.type Type of interval to plot. Options are "confidence" or "prediction". Default is

confidence interval.
int.width How large should the interval be, relative to the standard error? The default,
.95, corresponds to roughly 1.96 standard errors and a .05 alpha level for values
outside the range. In other words, for a confidence interval, .95 is analogous to
a 95% confidence interval.
outcome.scale For nonlinear models (i.e., GLMs), should the outcome variable be plotted on
the link scale (e.g., log odds for logit models) or the original scale (e.g., predicted
probabilities for logit models)? The default is "response", which is the original
scale. For the link scale, which will show straight lines rather than curves, use
"link".
linearity.check
For two-way interactions only. If TRUE, plots a pane for each level of the mod-
erator and superimposes a loess smoothed line (in gray) over the plot. This
enables you to see if the effect is linear through the span of the moderator. See
Hainmueller et al. (2016) in the references for more details on the intuition
behind this. It is recommended that you also set plot.points = TRUE and use
modx.values = "terciles" with this option.
facet.modx Create separate panels for each level of the moderator? Default is FALSE, ex-
cept when linearity.check is TRUE.
robust Should robust standard errors be used to find confidence intervals for supported
models? Default is FALSE, but you should specify the type of sandwich stan-
dard errors if you’d like to use them (i.e., "HC0", "HC1", and so on). If TRUE,
defaults to "HC3" standard errors.
cluster For clustered standard errors, provide the column name of the cluster variable in
the input data frame (as a string). Alternately, provide a vector of clusters.
vcov Optional. You may supply the variance-covariance matrix of the coefficients
yourself. This is useful if you are using some method for robust standard error
calculation not supported by the sandwich package.
set.offset For models with an offset (e.g., Poisson models), sets an offset for the predicted
values. All predicted values will have the same offset. By default, this is set to
1, which makes the predicted values a proportion. See details for more about
offset support.
x.label A character object specifying the desired x-axis label. If NULL, the variable name
is used.
y.label A character object specifying the desired x-axis label. If NULL, the variable name
is used.
pred.labels A character vector of 2 labels for the predictor if it is a 2-level factor or a con-
tinuous variable with only 2 values. If NULL, the default, the factor labels are
used.
modx.labels A character vector of labels for each level of the moderator values, provided in
the same order as the modx.values argument. If NULL, the values themselves
are used as labels unless modx,values is also NULL. In that case, "+1 SD" and
"-1 SD" are used.
interact_plot 13

mod2.labels A character vector of labels for each level of the 2nd moderator values, provided
in the same order as the mod2.values argument. If NULL, the values themselves
are used as labels unless mod2.values is also NULL. In that case, "+1 SD" and
"-1 SD" are used.
main.title A character object that will be used as an overall title for the plot. If NULL, no
main title is used.
legend.main A character object that will be used as the title that appears above the legend. If
NULL, the name of the moderating variable is used.
colors See jtools_colors for details on the types of arguments accepted. Default
is "CUD Bright" for factor moderators, "Blues" for +/- SD and user-specified
modx.values values.
line.thickness How thick should the plotted lines be? Default is 1.
vary.lty Should the resulting plot have different shapes for each line in addition to colors?
Defaults to TRUE.
point.size What size should be used for observed data when plot.points is TRUE? De-
fault is 1.5.
point.shape For plotted points—either of observed data or predicted values with the "point"
or "line" geoms—should the shape of the points vary by the values of the factor?
This is especially useful if you aim to be black and white printing- or colorblind-
friendly.
jitter How much should plot.points observed values be "jittered" via ggplot2::position_jitter()?
When there are many points near each other, jittering moves them a small amount
to keep them from totally overlapping. In some cases, though, it can add confu-
sion since it may make points appear to be outside the boundaries of observed
values or cause other visual issues. Default is 0, but try various small values
(e.g., 0.1) and increase as needed if your points are overlapping too much. If the
argument is a vector with two values, then the first is assumed to be the jitter for
width and the second for the height.
rug Show a rug plot in the margins? This uses ggplot2::geom_rug() to show the
distribution of the predictor (top/bottom) and/or response variable (left/right) in
the original data. Default is FALSE.
rug.sides On which sides should rug plots appear? Default is "b", meaning bottom. "t"
and/or "b" show the distribution of the predictor while "l" and/or "r" show the
distribution of the response. "bl" is a good option to show both the predictor and
response.
partial.residuals
Instead of plotting the observed data, you may plot the partial residuals (control-
ling for the effects of variables besides pred).
point.alpha What should the alpha aesthetic for plotted points of observed data be? Default
is 0.6, and it can range from 0 (transparent) to 1 (opaque).
color.class Deprecated. Now known as colors.
... extra arguments passed to make_predictions
14 interact_plot

Details
This function provides a means for plotting conditional effects for the purpose of exploring interac-
tions in regression models.
The function is designed for two and three-way interactions. For additional terms, the effects pack-
age may be better suited to the task.
This function supports nonlinear and generalized linear models and by default will plot them on
their original scale (outcome.scale = "response"). To plot them on the linear scale, use "link" for
outcome.scale.
While mixed effects models from lme4 are supported, only the fixed effects are plotted. lme4 does
not provide confidence intervals, so they are not supported with this function either.
Note: to use transformed predictors, e.g., log(variable), put its name in quotes or backticks in
the argument.
Details on how observed data are split in multi-pane plots:
If you set plot.points = TRUE and request a multi-pane (facetted) plot either with a second mod-
erator, linearity.check = TRUE, or facet.modx = TRUE, the observed data are split into as many
groups as there are panes and plotted separately. If the moderator is a factor, then the way this
happens will be very intuitive since it’s obvious which values go in which pane. The rest of this
section will address the case of continuous moderators.
My recommendation is that you use modx.values = "terciles" or mod2.values = "terciles"
when you want to plot observed data on multi-pane plots. When you do, the data are split into three
approximately equal-sized groups with the lowest third, middle third, and highest third of the data
split accordingly. You can replicate this procedure using Hmisc::cut2() with g = 3 from the Hmisc
package. Sometimes, the groups will not be equal in size because the number of observations is not
divisible by 3 and/or there are multiple observations with the same value at one of the cut points.
Otherwise, a more ad hoc procedure is used to split the data. Quantiles are found for each mod2.values
or modx.values value. These are not the quantiles used to split the data, however, since we want
the plotted lines to represent the slope at a typical value in the group. The next step, then, is to take
the mean of each pair of neighboring quantiles and use these as the cut points.
For example, if the mod2.values are at the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of the distribution of
the moderator, the data will be split at the 37.5th and and 62.5th percentiles. When the variable is
normally distributed, this will correspond fairly closely to using terciles.
Info about offsets:
Offsets are partially supported by this function with important limitations. First of all, only a single
offset per model is supported. Second, it is best in general to specify offsets with the offset argument
of the model fitting function rather than in the formula. You are much more likely to have success
if you provide the data used to fit the model with the data argument.

Value
The functions returns a ggplot object, which can be treated like a user-created plot and expanded
upon as such.

Author(s)
Jacob Long <[email protected]>
interact_plot 15

References
Bauer, D. J., & Curran, P. J. (2005). Probing interactions in fixed and multilevel regression: Infer-
ential and graphical techniques. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 40(3), 373-400. doi:10.1207/
s15327906mbr4003_5
Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation
analyses for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Hainmueller, J., Mummolo, J., & Xu, Y. (2016). How much should we trust estimates from multi-
plicative interaction models? Simple tools to improve empirical practice. SSRN Electronic Journal.
doi:10.2139/ssrn.2739221

See Also
plotSlopes from rockchalk performs a similar function, but with R’s base graphics—this function
is meant, in part, to emulate its features.
Functions from the margins and sjPlot packages may also be useful if this one isn’t working for
you.
sim_slopes performs a simple slopes analysis with a similar argument syntax to this function.

Examples
# Using a fitted lm model
states <- as.data.frame(state.x77)
states$HSGrad <- states$`HS Grad`
fit <- lm(Income ~ HSGrad + Murder * Illiteracy, data = states)
interact_plot(model = fit, pred = Murder, modx = Illiteracy)

# Using interval feature

fit <- lm(accel ~ mag * dist, data = attenu)
interact_plot(fit, pred = mag, modx = dist, interval = TRUE,
int.type = "confidence", int.width = .8)

# Using second moderator

fit <- lm(Income ~ HSGrad * Murder * Illiteracy, data = states)
interact_plot(model = fit, pred = Murder, modx = Illiteracy, mod2 = HSGrad)

# With svyglm
if (requireNamespace("survey")) {
library(survey)
data(api)
dstrat <- svydesign(id = ~1, strata = ~stype, weights = ~pw,
data = apistrat, fpc = ~fpc)
regmodel <- svyglm(api00 ~ ell * meals, design = dstrat)
interact_plot(regmodel, pred = ell, modx = meals)
}

# With lme4
## Not run:
library(lme4)
data(VerbAgg)
mv <- glmer(r2 ~ Anger * mode + (1 | item), data = VerbAgg,
16 johnson_neyman

family = binomial,
control = glmerControl("bobyqa"))
interact_plot(mv, pred = Anger, modx = mode)

## End(Not run)

johnson_neyman Calculate Johnson-Neyman intervals for 2-way interactions

Description
johnson_neyman finds so-called "Johnson-Neyman" intervals for understanding where simple slopes
are significant in the context of interactions in multiple linear regression.

Usage
johnson_neyman(
model,
pred,
modx,
vmat = NULL,
alpha = 0.05,
plot = TRUE,
control.fdr = FALSE,
line.thickness = 0.5,
df = "residual",
digits = getOption("jtools-digits", 2),
critical.t = NULL,
sig.color = "#00BFC4",
insig.color = "#F8766D",
mod.range = NULL,
title = "Johnson-Neyman plot",
y.label = NULL,
modx.label = NULL
)

Arguments
model A regression model. It is tested with lm, glm, and svyglm objects, but others
may work as well. It should contain the interaction of interest. Be aware that just
because the computations work, this does not necessarily mean the procedure is
appropriate for the type of model you have.
pred The predictor variable involved in the interaction.
modx The moderator variable involved in the interaction.
johnson_neyman 17

vmat Optional. You may supply the variance-covariance matrix of the coefficients
yourself. This is useful if you are using robust standard errors, as you could if
using the sandwich package.
alpha The alpha level. By default, the standard 0.05.
plot Should a plot of the results be printed? Default is TRUE. The ggplot2 object is
returned either way.
control.fdr Logical. Use the procedure described in Esarey & Sumner (2017) to limit the
false discovery rate? Default is FALSE. See details for more on this method.
line.thickness How thick should the predicted line be? This is passed to geom_path as the size
argument, but because of the way the line is created, you cannot use geom_path
to modify the output plot yourself.
df How should the degrees of freedom be calculated for the critical test statistic?
Previous versions used the large sample approximation; if alpha was .05, the
critical test statistic was 1.96 regardless of sample size and model complexity.
The default is now "residual", meaning the same degrees of freedom used to cal-
culate p values for regression coefficients. You may instead choose any number
or "normal", which reverts to the previous behavior. The argument is not used if
control.fdr = TRUE.
digits An integer specifying the number of digits past the decimal to report in the out-
put. Default is 2. You can change the default number of digits for all jtools
functions with options("jtools-digits" = digits) where digits is the de-
sired number.
critical.t If you want to provide the critical test statistic instead relying on a normal or t
approximation, or the control.fdr calculation, you can give that value here.
This allows you to use other methods for calculating it.
sig.color Sets the color for areas of the Johnson-Neyman plot where the slope of the
moderator is significant at the specified level. "black" can be a good choice
for greyscale publishing.
insig.color Sets the color for areas of the Johnson-Neyman plot where the slope of the
moderator is insignificant at the specified level. "grey" can be a good choice
for greyscale publishing.
mod.range The range of values of the moderator (the x-axis) to plot. By default, this goes
from one standard deviation below the observed range to one standard deviation
above the observed range and the observed range is highlighted on the plot. You
could instead choose to provide the actual observed minimum and maximum, in
which case the range of the observed data is not highlighted in the plot. Provide
the range as a vector, e.g., c(0, 10).
title The plot title. "Johnson-Neyman plot" by default.
y.label If you prefer to override the automatic labelling of the y axis, you can specify
your own label here. The y axis represents a slope so it is recommended that
you do not simply give the name of the predictor variable but instead make clear
that it is a slope. By default, "Slope of [pred]" is used (with whatever pred is).
modx.label If you prefer to override the automatic labelling of the x axis, you can specify
your own label here. By default, the name modx is used.
18 johnson_neyman

Details

The interpretation of the values given by this function is important and not always immediately
intuitive. For an interaction between a predictor variable and moderator variable, it is often the case
that the slope of the predictor is statistically significant at only some values of the moderator. For
example, perhaps the effect of your predictor is only significant when the moderator is set at some
high value.
The Johnson-Neyman interval provides the two values of the moderator at which the slope of the
predictor goes from non-significant to significant. Usually, the predictor’s slope is only significant
outside of the range given by the function. The output of this function will make it clear either way.
One weakness of this method of probing interactions is that it is analogous to making multiple com-
parisons without any adjustment to the alpha level. Esarey & Sumner (2017) proposed a method for
addressing this, which is implemented in the interactionTest package. This function implements
that procedure with modifications to the interactionTest code (that package is not required to use
this function). If you set control.fdr = TRUE, an alternative t statistic will be calculated based on
your specified alpha level and the data. This will always be a more conservative test than when
control.fdr = FALSE. The printed output will report the calculated critical t statistic.
This technique is not easily ported to 3-way interaction contexts. You could, however, look at
the J-N interval at two different levels of a second moderator. This does forgo a benefit of the
J-N technique, which is not having to pick arbitrary points. If you want to do this, just use the
sim_slopes function’s ability to handle 3-way interactions and request Johnson-Neyman intervals
for each.

Value

bounds The two numbers that make up the interval.

cbands A dataframe with predicted values of the predictor’s slope and lower/upper
bounds of confidence bands if you would like to make your own plots
plot The ggplot object used for plotting. You can tweak the plot like you could any
other from ggplot.

Author(s)

Jacob Long <[email protected]>

References

Bauer, D. J., & Curran, P. J. (2005). Probing interactions in fixed and multilevel regression: Infer-
ential and graphical techniques. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 40(3), 373-400. doi:10.1207/
s15327906mbr4003_5
Esarey, J., & Sumner, J. L. (2017). Marginal effects in interaction models: Determining and con-
trolling the false positive rate. Comparative Political Studies, 1–33. Advance online publication.
doi:10.1177/0010414017730080
Johnson, P.O. & Fay, L.C. (1950). The Johnson-Neyman technique, its theory and application.
Psychometrika, 15, 349-367. doi:10.1007/BF02288864
plot.sim_margins 19

See Also
Other interaction tools: probe_interaction(), sim_margins(), sim_slopes()

Examples
# Using a fitted lm model
states <- as.data.frame(state.x77)
states$HSGrad <- states$`HS Grad`
fit <- lm(Income ~ HSGrad + Murder*Illiteracy,
data = states)
johnson_neyman(model = fit, pred = Murder,
modx = Illiteracy)

plot.sim_margins Plot coefficients from simple slopes analysis

Description
This creates a coefficient plot to visually summarize the results of simple slopes analysis.

Usage
## S3 method for class 'sim_margins'
plot(x, ...)

Arguments
x A sim_margins() object.
... arguments passed to jtools::plot_coefs()

plot.sim_slopes Plot coefficients from simple slopes analysis

Description
This creates a coefficient plot to visually summarize the results of simple slopes analysis.

Usage
## S3 method for class 'sim_slopes'
plot(x, ...)

Arguments
x A sim_slopes() object.
... arguments passed to jtools::plot_coefs()
20 probe_interaction

probe_interaction Probe interaction effects via simple slopes and plotting

Description
probe_interaction is a convenience function that allows users to call both sim_slopes and
interact_plot with a single call.

Usage
probe_interaction(model, pred, modx, mod2 = NULL, ...)

Arguments
model A regression model. The function is tested with lm, glm, svyglm, merMod, rq,
brmsfit, stanreg models. Models from other classes may work as well but are
not officially supported. The model should include the interaction of interest.
pred The name of the predictor variable involved in the interaction. This can be a
bare name or string. Note that it is evaluated using rlang, so programmers can
use the !! syntax to pass variables instead of the verbatim names.
modx The name of the moderator variable involved in the interaction. This can be a
bare name or string. The same rlang proviso applies as with pred.
mod2 Optional. The name of the second moderator variable involved in the interaction.
This can be a bare name or string. The same rlang proviso applies as with pred.
... Other arguments accepted by sim_slopes and interact_plot

Details
This function simply merges the nearly-equivalent arguments needed to call both sim_slopes and
interact_plot without the need for re-typing their common arguments. Note that each function
is called separately and they re-fit a separate model for each level of each moderator; therefore, the
runtime may be considerably longer than the original model fit. For larger models, this is worth
keeping in mind.
Sometimes, you may want different parameters when doing simple slopes analysis compared to
when plotting interaction effects. For instance, it is often easier to interpret the regression output
when variables are standardized; but plots are often easier to understand when the variables are in
their original units of measure.
probe_interaction does not support providing different arguments to each function. If that is
needed, use sim_slopes and interact_plot directly.

Value
simslopes The sim_slopes object created.
interactplot The ggplot object created by interact_plot.
sim_margins 21

Author(s)
Jacob Long <[email protected]>

See Also
Other interaction tools: johnson_neyman(), sim_margins(), sim_slopes()

Examples
# Using a fitted model as formula input
fiti <- lm(Income ~ Frost + Murder * Illiteracy,
data=as.data.frame(state.x77))
probe_interaction(model = fiti, pred = Murder, modx = Illiteracy,
modx.values = "plus-minus")
# 3-way interaction
fiti3 <- lm(Income ~ Frost * Murder * Illiteracy,
data=as.data.frame(state.x77))
probe_interaction(model = fiti3, pred = Murder, modx = Illiteracy,
mod2 = Frost, mod2.values = "plus-minus")

# With svyglm
if (requireNamespace("survey")) {
library(survey)
data(api)
dstrat <- svydesign(id = ~1, strata = ~stype, weights = ~pw,
data = apistrat, fpc = ~fpc)
regmodel <- svyglm(api00 ~ ell * meals + sch.wide, design = dstrat)
probe_interaction(model = regmodel, pred = ell, modx = meals,
modx.values = "plus-minus", cond.int = TRUE)

# 3-way with survey and factor input

regmodel3 <- svyglm(api00 ~ ell * meals * sch.wide, design = dstrat)
probe_interaction(model = regmodel3, pred = ell, modx = meals,
mod2 = sch.wide)
# Can try different configurations of 1st vs 2nd mod
probe_interaction(model = regmodel3, pred = ell, modx = sch.wide,
mod2 = meals)
}

sim_margins Perform a simple margins analysis.

Description
sim_margins conducts a simple margins analysis for the purposes of understanding two- and three-
way interaction effects in linear regression.
22 sim_margins

Usage
sim_margins(
model,
pred,
modx,
mod2 = NULL,
modx.values = NULL,
mod2.values = NULL,
data = NULL,
cond.int = FALSE,
vce = c("delta", "simulation", "bootstrap", "none"),
iterations = 1000,
digits = getOption("jtools-digits", default = 2),
pvals = TRUE,
confint = FALSE,
ci.width = 0.95,
cluster = NULL,
modx.labels = NULL,
mod2.labels = NULL,
...
)

Arguments
model A regression model. The function is tested with lm, glm, svyglm, merMod, rq,
brmsfit, stanreg models. Models from other classes may work as well but are
not officially supported. The model should include the interaction of interest.
pred The name of the predictor variable involved in the interaction. This can be a
bare name or string. Note that it is evaluated using rlang, so programmers can
use the !! syntax to pass variables instead of the verbatim names.
modx The name of the moderator variable involved in the interaction. This can be a
bare name or string. The same rlang proviso applies as with pred.
mod2 Optional. The name of the second moderator variable involved in the interaction.
This can be a bare name or string. The same rlang proviso applies as with pred.
modx.values For which values of the moderator should lines be plotted? There are two basic
options:
• A vector of values (e.g., c(1, 2, 3))
• A single argument asking to calculate a set of values. See details below.
Default is NULL. If NULL (or mean-plus-minus), then the customary +/- 1 stan-
dard deviation from the mean as well as the mean itself are used for continuous
moderators. If "plus-minus", plots lines when the moderator is at +/- 1 stan-
dard deviation without the mean. You may also choose "terciles" to split the
data into equally-sized groups and choose the point at the mean of each of those
groups.
If the moderator is a factor variable and modx.values is NULL, each level of
the factor is included. You may specify any subset of the factor levels (e.g.,
sim_margins 23

c("Level 1", "Level 3")) as long as there is more than 1. The levels will be
plotted in the order you provide them, so this can be used to reorder levels as
well.
mod2.values For which values of the second moderator should the plot be facetted by? That
is, there will be a separate plot for each level of this moderator. Defaults are the
same as modx.values.
data Optional, default is NULL. You may provide the data used to fit the model. This
can be a better way to get mean values for centering and can be crucial for mod-
els with variable transformations in the formula (e.g., log(x)) or polynomial
terms (e.g., poly(x, 2)). You will see a warning if the function detects prob-
lems that would likely be solved by providing the data with this argument and
the function will attempt to retrieve the original data from the global environ-
ment.
cond.int Should conditional intercepts be printed in addition to the slopes? Default is
FALSE.
vce A character string indicating the type of estimation procedure to use for esti-
mating variances. The default (“delta”) uses the delta method. Alternatives are
“bootstrap”, which uses bootstrap estimation, or “simulation”, which averages
across simulations drawn from the joint sampling distribution of model coeffi-
cients. The latter two are extremely time intensive.
iterations If vce = "bootstrap", the number of bootstrap iterations. If vce = "simulation",
the number of simulated effects to draw. Ignored otherwise.
digits An integer specifying the number of digits past the decimal to report in the out-
put. Default is 2. You can change the default number of digits for all jtools
functions with options("jtools-digits" = digits) where digits is the de-
sired number.
pvals Show p values? If FALSE, these are not printed. Default is TRUE.
confint Show confidence intervals instead of standard errors? Default is FALSE.
ci.width A number between 0 and 1 that signifies the width of the desired confidence in-
terval. Default is .95, which corresponds to a 95% confidence interval. Ignored
if confint = FALSE.
cluster For clustered standard errors, provide the column name of the cluster variable in
the input data frame (as a string). Alternately, provide a vector of clusters.
modx.labels A character vector of labels for each level of the moderator values, provided in
the same order as the modx.values argument. If NULL, the values themselves
are used as labels unless modx,values is also NULL. In that case, "+1 SD" and
"-1 SD" are used.
mod2.labels A character vector of labels for each level of the 2nd moderator values, provided
in the same order as the mod2.values argument. If NULL, the values themselves
are used as labels unless mod2.values is also NULL. In that case, "+1 SD" and
"-1 SD" are used.
... ignored.
24 sim_slopes

Details
This allows the user to perform a simple margins analysis for the purpose of probing interaction
effects in a linear regression. Two- and three-way interactions are supported, though one should be
warned that three-way interactions are not easy to interpret in this way.
The function is tested with lm, glm, svyglm, and merMod inputs. Others may work as well, but are
not tested. In all but the linear model case, be aware that not all the assumptions applied to simple
slopes analysis apply.

Value
A list object with the following components:

slopes A table of coefficients for the focal predictor at each value of the moderator
ints A table of coefficients for the intercept at each value of the moderator
modx.values The values of the moderator used in the analysis

Author(s)
Jacob Long <[email protected]>

References
Bauer, D. J., & Curran, P. J. (2005). Probing interactions in fixed and multilevel regression: Infer-
ential and graphical techniques. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 40(3), 373-400. doi:10.1207/
s15327906mbr4003_5
Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation
analyses for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Hanmer, M. J., & Kalkan, K. O. (2013). Behind the curve: Clarifying the best approach to calculat-
ing predicted probabilities and marginal effects from limited dependent variable models. American
Journal of Political Science, 57, 263–277. doi:10.1111/j.15405907.2012.00602.x

See Also
margins::margins()
Other interaction tools: johnson_neyman(), probe_interaction(), sim_slopes()

sim_slopes Perform a simple slopes analysis.

Description
sim_slopes conducts a simple slopes analysis for the purposes of understanding two- and three-
way interaction effects in linear regression.
sim_slopes 25

Usage
sim_slopes(
model,
pred,
modx,
mod2 = NULL,
modx.values = NULL,
mod2.values = NULL,
centered = "all",
at = NULL,
data = NULL,
cond.int = FALSE,
johnson_neyman = TRUE,
jnplot = FALSE,
jnalpha = 0.05,
robust = FALSE,
digits = getOption("jtools-digits", default = 2),
pvals = TRUE,
confint = FALSE,
ci.width = 0.95,
cluster = NULL,
modx.labels = NULL,
mod2.labels = NULL,
v.cov = NULL,
v.cov.args = NULL,
...
)

Arguments
model A regression model. The function is tested with lm, glm, svyglm, merMod, rq,
brmsfit, stanreg models. Models from other classes may work as well but are
not officially supported. The model should include the interaction of interest.
pred The name of the predictor variable involved in the interaction. This can be a
bare name or string. Note that it is evaluated using rlang, so programmers can
use the !! syntax to pass variables instead of the verbatim names.
modx The name of the moderator variable involved in the interaction. This can be a
bare name or string. The same rlang proviso applies as with pred.
mod2 Optional. The name of the second moderator variable involved in the interaction.
This can be a bare name or string. The same rlang proviso applies as with pred.
modx.values For which values of the moderator should lines be plotted? There are two basic
options:
• A vector of values (e.g., c(1, 2, 3))
• A single argument asking to calculate a set of values. See details below.
Default is NULL. If NULL (or mean-plus-minus), then the customary +/- 1 stan-
dard deviation from the mean as well as the mean itself are used for continuous
26 sim_slopes

moderators. If "plus-minus", plots lines when the moderator is at +/- 1 stan-

dard deviation without the mean. You may also choose "terciles" to split the
data into equally-sized groups and choose the point at the mean of each of those
groups.
If the moderator is a factor variable and modx.values is NULL, each level of
the factor is included. You may specify any subset of the factor levels (e.g.,
c("Level 1", "Level 3")) as long as there is more than 1. The levels will be
plotted in the order you provide them, so this can be used to reorder levels as
well.
mod2.values For which values of the second moderator should the plot be facetted by? That
is, there will be a separate plot for each level of this moderator. Defaults are the
same as modx.values.
centered A vector of quoted variable names that are to be mean-centered. If "all", all
non-focal predictors as well as the pred variable are centered. You may instead
pass a character vector of variables to center. User can also use "none" to base
all predictions on variables set at 0. The response variable, modx, and mod2
variables are never centered.
at If you want to manually set the values of other variables in the model, do so by
providing a named list where the names are the variables and the list values are
vectors of the values. Note that you cannot alter the values of the pred, modx, or
mod2 variables and this will take precedence over the centered argument (but
any variables unmentioned by at will be centered as specified by centered).
For linear models, this will only change the output of the conditional intercepts.
data Optional, default is NULL. You may provide the data used to fit the model. This
can be a better way to get mean values for centering and can be crucial for mod-
els with variable transformations in the formula (e.g., log(x)) or polynomial
terms (e.g., poly(x, 2)). You will see a warning if the function detects prob-
lems that would likely be solved by providing the data with this argument and
the function will attempt to retrieve the original data from the global environ-
ment.
cond.int Should conditional intercepts be printed in addition to the slopes? Default is
FALSE.
johnson_neyman Should the Johnson-Neyman interval be calculated? Default is TRUE. This can
be performed separately with johnson_neyman.
jnplot Should the Johnson-Neyman interval be plotted as well? Default is FALSE.
jnalpha What should the alpha level be for the Johnson-Neyman interval? Default is .05,
which corresponds to a 95% confidence interval.
robust Should robust standard errors be used to find confidence intervals for supported
models? Default is FALSE, but you should specify the type of sandwich stan-
dard errors if you’d like to use them (i.e., "HC0", "HC1", and so on). If TRUE,
defaults to "HC3" standard errors.
digits An integer specifying the number of digits past the decimal to report in the out-
put. Default is 2. You can change the default number of digits for all jtools
functions with options("jtools-digits" = digits) where digits is the de-
sired number.
sim_slopes 27

pvals Show p values? If FALSE, these are not printed. Default is TRUE.
confint Show confidence intervals instead of standard errors? Default is FALSE.
ci.width A number between 0 and 1 that signifies the width of the desired confidence in-
terval. Default is .95, which corresponds to a 95% confidence interval. Ignored
if confint = FALSE.
cluster For clustered standard errors, provide the column name of the cluster variable in
the input data frame (as a string). Alternately, provide a vector of clusters.
modx.labels A character vector of labels for each level of the moderator values, provided in
the same order as the modx.values argument. If NULL, the values themselves
are used as labels unless modx,values is also NULL. In that case, "+1 SD" and
"-1 SD" are used.
mod2.labels A character vector of labels for each level of the 2nd moderator values, provided
in the same order as the mod2.values argument. If NULL, the values themselves
are used as labels unless mod2.values is also NULL. In that case, "+1 SD" and
"-1 SD" are used.
v.cov A function to calculate variances for the model. Examples could be sandwich::vcovPC().
v.cov.args A list of arguments for the v.cov function. For whichever argument should be
the fitted model, put "model".
... Arguments passed to johnson_neyman and summ.

Details
This allows the user to perform a simple slopes analysis for the purpose of probing interaction
effects in a linear regression. Two- and three-way interactions are supported, though one should be
warned that three-way interactions are not easy to interpret in this way.
For more about Johnson-Neyman intervals, see johnson_neyman.
The function is tested with lm, glm, svyglm, and merMod inputs. Others may work as well, but are
not tested. In all but the linear model case, be aware that not all the assumptions applied to simple
slopes analysis apply.

Value
A list object with the following components:

slopes A table of coefficients for the focal predictor at each value of the moderator
ints A table of coefficients for the intercept at each value of the moderator
modx.values The values of the moderator used in the analysis
mods A list containing each regression model created to estimate the conditional co-
efficients.
jn If johnson_neyman = TRUE, a list of johnson_neyman objects from johnson_neyman.
These contain the values of the interval and the plots. If a 2-way interaction, the
list will be of length
1. Otherwise, there will be 1 johnson_neyman object for each value of the
2nd moderator for 3-way interactions.
28 tidy.sim_margins

Author(s)
Jacob Long <[email protected]>

References
Bauer, D. J., & Curran, P. J. (2005). Probing interactions in fixed and multilevel regression: Infer-
ential and graphical techniques. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 40(3), 373-400. doi:10.1207/
s15327906mbr4003_5
Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation
analyses for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

See Also
interact_plot accepts similar syntax and will plot the results with ggplot.
testSlopes() from rockchalk performs a hypothesis test of differences and provides Johnson-
Neyman intervals.
simpleSlope() from pequod performs a similar analysis.
Other interaction tools: johnson_neyman(), probe_interaction(), sim_margins()

Examples
# Using a fitted model as formula input
fiti <- lm(Income ~ Frost + Murder * Illiteracy,
data = as.data.frame(state.x77))
sim_slopes(model = fiti, pred = Murder, modx = Illiteracy)

# With svyglm
if (requireNamespace("survey")) {
library(survey)
data(api)
dstrat <- svydesign(id = ~1, strata = ~stype, weights = ~pw,
data = apistrat, fpc = ~fpc)
regmodel <- svyglm(api00 ~ ell * meals, design = dstrat)
sim_slopes(regmodel, pred = ell, modx = meals)

# 3-way with survey and factor input

regmodel <- svyglm(api00 ~ ell * meals * sch.wide, design = dstrat)
sim_slopes(regmodel, pred = ell, modx = meals, mod2 = sch.wide)
}

tidy.sim_margins Tidiers for sim_margins() objects.

Description
You can use broom::tidy() and broom::glance() for "tidy" methods of storing sim_margins
output.
tidy.sim_slopes 29

Usage
## S3 method for class 'sim_margins'
tidy(x, conf.level = 0.95, ...)

## S3 method for class 'sim_margins'

glance(x, ...)

Arguments
x The sim_margins object
conf.level The width of confidence intervals. Default is .95 (95%).
... Ignored.

tidy.sim_slopes Tidiers for sim_slopes() objects.

Description
You can use broom::tidy() and broom::glance() for "tidy" methods of storing sim_slopes
output.

Usage
## S3 method for class 'sim_slopes'
tidy(x, conf.level = 0.95, ...)

## S3 method for class 'sim_slopes'

glance(x, ...)

Arguments
x The sim_slopes object
conf.level The width of confidence intervals. Default is .95 (95%).
... Ignored.
Index

∗ interaction tools plot.sim_slopes, 19

johnson_neyman, 16 probe_interaction, 19, 20, 24, 28
probe_interaction, 20
sim_margins, 21 rq, 5, 10, 20, 22, 25
sim_slopes, 24
sandwich::vcovPC(), 27
as_huxtable.sim_margins, 2 sim_margins, 19, 21, 21, 28
as_huxtable.sim_slopes, 3 sim_margins(), 19, 28
sim_slopes, 15, 18–21, 24, 24
brmsfit, 5, 10, 20, 22, 25 sim_slopes(), 3, 19, 29
broom::glance(), 28, 29 svyglm, 5, 10, 20, 22, 25
broom::tidy(), 28, 29
tidy.sim_margins, 28
cat_plot, 4 tidy.sim_slopes, 29

geom_ribbon, 11
ggplot, 28
ggplot2::geom_errorbar(), 7
ggplot2::geom_linerange(), 7
ggplot2::geom_rug(), 13
ggplot2::position_dodge(), 7
ggplot2::position_jitter(), 7, 13
glance.sim_margins (tidy.sim_margins),
28
glance.sim_slopes (tidy.sim_slopes), 29

Hmisc::cut2(), 14

interact_plot, 9, 20, 28
interact_plot(), 4

johnson_neyman, 16, 21, 24, 26–28

jtools::export_summs(), 2, 3
jtools::get_colors(), 8
jtools::plot_coefs(), 19
jtools_colors, 13

margins::margins(), 24
merMod, 5, 10, 20, 22, 25

plot.sim_margins, 19

30