# Interpreting two-way continuous x continuous negative interaction (OLS)

Context: I'm testing a hypothesis for a paper I have to write. I suspect that higher trait authoritarianism (sca) will positively predict greater support for US Supreme Court Justice Roberts (data gathered post affordable care act ruling) on its own, but will increase the negative effects of conspiratorial ideation (CI) in an sca x CI interaction. I tested the interaction in the model below and it was significantly negative. I'm not sure though whether the results suggest that sca buffers/offsets the negative effects of CI or intensifies them. Can someone take a look and explain to me how to interpret it?

• It means that the higher CI is, the relationship between sca and the outcome is getting more negative. Or formulated differently: the relationship between CI and the outcome is getting more negative the higher sca is. Specifically, the slope of CI is positive for values of sca $< -3.01$ and negative for sca $> -3.01$. Similarly, the slope of sca is positive for CI $< 1.90$ and negative for CI $> 1.90$. – COOLSerdash Dec 3 '17 at 11:10
• Here is a good tutorial on how to visualize the interaction in Stata. – COOLSerdash Dec 3 '17 at 14:47
• As my old stats teacher always told us: when in doubt calculate the derivative – Repmat Dec 3 '17 at 15:52