Aresearcher is studying the science of attractiveness and asks volunteer test subjects to rank what trait they find most attractive in a person. what type of variable is the dependent variable in this experiment?

The correct answer is categorical variable

This is because the various people will fall on a group depending on their attractiveness. A categorical variable assumes a fixed number of possible values which are assigned to the unit of observation depending on the qualitative property under research

the answer your looking for is c. : )