The Effects of Violating the Normality Assumption Underlying r

Using randomly generated samples from populations having varying rhos, different shapes of distributions, and varying sample sizes, the effects of violating the population normality assumption underlying r were examined. Results indicate that the normality assumption underlying r is robust (i. e., that violation of the population normality assumption does not seriously alter the interpretation of r). Violation of the population normality assumption appears, therefore, to be insufficient reason to deny r a place as a major tool for sociological analysis.