What Influences Risk Perception?
We evaluate risk depending on certain criteria. Problem-solving skills rely very much on intellectual ability and on how the numbers are presented to us. The bigger the numbers, the higher the risk – right? Not always. Emotional and affective reactions also enter our calculations and may mean we fear the wrong things. In a study that involved choosing the greater chance of getting a coloured bean in a bowl of white jelly beans, low numerate participants were more likely to choose a bowl that had nine coloured jelly beans in a bowl of 100 (9% chance) compared to one coloured jelly bean in a bowl of 10 (10% chance).10 Nine and 100 seemed much bigger numbers, thereby a greater chance, even though likelihood was higher in the jar of 10. Generally people have difficulty determining risk and get confused by different terms used such as absolute, lifetime or relative risk, as well as the emotion that may be attached to the risk. The most effective way to communicate risk is on an individual l
