I have a survey analysis data which has responses regarding Consumer Satisfaction (on a scale of 1 to 5)and I am trying to fit a linear regression model to it. As per my understanding, the basic assumption for linear regression is that the independent variables must not show significant correlation.
In my case however, since the responses are filled by people (homo-sapiens), the responses are showing correlations within a category and across categories (Food, Facility etc).
Is this a cause for concern? Can I still go ahead and apply linear regression or should I combine the correlated responses? Also if I were to combine responses, how should I go about it?
Thanks in advance!