how to tell if a scatter olot have a postive or negative association

To determine if a scatter plot has a positive or negative association, you need to examine the overall trend of the points on the plot.

Positive association: If the points on the scatter plot generally tend to move in a positive direction or form an upward sloping line, then there is a positive association between the variables. This means that as one variable increases, the other variable also tends to increase.

Negative association: If the points on the scatter plot generally tend to move in a negative direction or form a downward sloping line, then there is a negative association between the variables. This means that as one variable increases, the other variable tends to decrease.

Additionally, you can calculate the correlation coefficient for the variables in the scatter plot. A correlation coefficient close to +1 indicates a strong positive association, while a correlation coefficient close to -1 indicates a strong negative association. A correlation coefficient of 0 suggests no linear relationship between the variables.