What does a correlation coefficient of 0 indicate?

What does a correlation coefficient of 0 indicate?

• A. No linear relationship
• B. A perfect positive relationship
• C. A perfect negative relationship
• D. A strong positive relationship

Answer: (A)

Correlation coefficient measures the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables. If it is zero, there is no linear relationship detected between them. That means you wouldn’t expect to see a straight-line trend when you plot the data, even though there might still be some other kind of relationship (for example, a curved one) or no relationship at all. A perfect positive relationship would push the value to +1, a perfect negative relationship to -1, and a strong positive relationship would be a value close to +1, not zero. In short, zero indicates no linear association, not necessarily no connection or any non-linear pattern.

Correlation coefficient measures the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables. If it is zero, there is no linear relationship detected between them. That means you wouldn’t expect to see a straight-line trend when you plot the data, even though there might still be some other kind of relationship (for example, a curved one) or no relationship at all. A perfect positive relationship would push the value to +1, a perfect negative relationship to -1, and a strong positive relationship would be a value close to +1, not zero. In short, zero indicates no linear association, not necessarily no connection or any non-linear pattern.