title: Risk avoidance: graphs versus numbers.
abstract: There have long been speculations that graphical and numerical presentations of risk statistics differ in their impact on people's wilingness to pursue actions that could harm or even kill them. But research has been unclear about the processes whereby the pictorial character of graphical displays per se might affect those risky decisions or even whether such effects actually occur. In two studies, we demonstrate that the pictorial nature of a graphical risk display can, indeed, increase risk avoidance. This increase is associated with a heightened impression of the riskiness of less safe alternatives. The results suggest that this picture-driven, intensified sense of riskiness, in turn, rests on two kinds of mechanisms: one cognitive, the other affective. Cognitively, pictorial presentations impose weaker upper bounds on people's internal representations of the chances that riskier alternatives will bring about actual harm. Affectively, pictures ignite stronger, more aversive negative associations with riskier options and their outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1109, USA. hchua@umich.edu
authors.forename: Hannah Faye
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Chua
authors.forename: J Frank
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Yates
authors.forename: Priti
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shah
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001245:Association Learning; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D040261:Harm Reduction; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010518:Periodontitis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D011340:Problem Solving; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012718:Set, Psychology; D014100:Toothpastes; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control
chemical_list: D014100:Toothpastes