Transportation and Risk Perceptions in Individuals Varying in Numeracy (2013)

Undergraduate: Remi Moore

Faculty Advisor: Melanie Green
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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In medical settings, people often base their perceptions of risk on a mix of numeric and narrative information. Previous research has shown that narrative transportation (immersion in stories) is an effective persuasive technique, and that different representations of numbers may have different effects on risk perception. However, little research has examined individual differences as a mediating factor for communication techniques, or if the transportive qualities of the narrative have an effect on risk perceptions. We investigated how individuals of varying numeracy (number literacy) and transportability (the tendency to be immersed in a story) perceived risk when exposed to both numeric and narrative information. Undergraduates (N = 218) read about a fictional disease in a 2 (narrative information: transporting or not) x 2 (risk: high or low) between subjects design. Participants answered questions about their own risk perceptions, and individual differences like transportability and numeracy. Objective numeracy did not have any effects on the primary variables, but subjective numeracy did affect responses. The results suggest that those with higher subjective numeracy more accurately assess risk when compared with those with low subjective risk, but only when information is non-threatening and when they are not influenced by high quality narratives. This study suggests that subjective numeracy is important for health decisions, even when individuals are highly numerate.