Which correlation value has the highest strength?

• A. -0.8
• B. 0.8
• C. -0.9
• D. 0.7

Answer: (A)

The strength of a correlation is determined by its magnitude, not its direction. Correlation coefficients range from -1 to 1, and the closer the absolute value is to 1, the stronger the linear relationship.

Compute the magnitudes: |-0.8| = 0.8, |0.8| = 0.8, |-0.9| = 0.9, |0.7| = 0.7. The largest magnitude is 0.9, which corresponds to -0.9, indicating the strongest linear association among the options. The negative sign simply shows an inverse relationship; the strength is about how close the value is to ±1.