How can feature selection reduce overfitting in machine learning models?

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How can feature selection reduce overfitting in machine learning models?

Asked on Oct 10, 2025

Answer

Feature selection is a crucial step in the machine learning pipeline that helps reduce overfitting by eliminating irrelevant or redundant features, which can lead to a more generalized model. By focusing on the most informative features, the model complexity is reduced, thus improving its ability to generalize to new data.

Example Concept: Feature selection techniques, such as Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE), LASSO regularization, and tree-based feature importance, help identify and retain only the most predictive features. These methods reduce the risk of overfitting by simplifying the model, decreasing variance, and enhancing interpretability, which leads to better performance on unseen data.

Additional Comment:

Feature selection can be performed using filter methods (e.g., correlation coefficients), wrapper methods (e.g., forward selection), or embedded methods (e.g., regularization techniques).
Reducing the number of features can also decrease computational cost and improve model training speed.
It's important to validate the model's performance using cross-validation to ensure that feature selection improves generalization.

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