Ruling out Reverse Interactions

[Mariame Shaw]

Hi Everyone,

I have a question about interpreting/understanding the findings of a moderation analysis.

For instance, let's say I run a moderation analysis (I.e., interaction of X*Z) in Stata to evaluate whether Z moderates the X-Y association. If I find a significant interaction and show graphically that Z moderates the X-Y association, Is there an analytical approach (e.g., post-hoc analyses) to rule out reverse interactions when theoretically it is possible that X may also moderate the Z-Y relationship? I have been thinking in circles about this lately.

Here is an image from Andersson, et al for reference.

[Maarten Buis]

No those two models are mathematically equivalent. All you can do is rely on what you find plausible, and hope your audience agrees with you.