If the correlation coefficient r for two variables is 0.85, what does that indicate?

• A. Strong positive linear relationship
• B. Weak negative linear relationship
• C. No linear relationship
• D. Moderate positive linear relationship

Answer: (A)

Correlation coefficient r shows both how strong and in what direction two variables move together along a line. It ranges from -1 to 1. A value near 1 or -1 means a strong linear relationship, while a value near 0 suggests little or no linear link. The sign tells the direction: positive means as one variable increases, the other tends to increase as well; negative means one tends to decrease when the other increases. A value of 0.85 is positive and close to 1, so it indicates a strong positive linear relationship. It means high values of one variable tend to be paired with high values of the other, showing a fairly tight linear pattern, though not a perfect straight line (which would require r = ±1).