Question

Quantitative Research Methodologies - What is the difference, if any between the sign of a correlation and the strength of a correlation?

Answer 1

The sign of the correlation tells us about the direction of the linear relationship between the two quantitative variables i.e. it tells us whether the association between the two variables is positive or negative.

• If +, then as one variable increases, the other variable increases as well
• If -, then as one variable increases, the other variable decreases.

The strength of the correlation basically tells us how strong the association is between the two variables. The closer the absolute value of the correlation is to 1, the stronger is the magnitude of the association between the two variables.

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