Suppose that you are reviewing a table of data from a study. Its stated that the table of data represents a linear relationship. You noticed that as one factor

Question

Suppose that you are reviewing a table of data from a study. Its stated that the table of data represents a linear relationship. You noticed that as one factor increases, the second factor decreases. Would we describe this linear relationship as having a negative or positive slope?

 

Answer 1

The slope would be negative. Let's consider an example of hours worked on the x axis and time spent with family on the y axis: as my hours worked goes up, the time I spend with family goes down. This is a negative relationship since the slope is negative.