The Effects of Knowledge Evoking Style and Icon Arrays on Perceived Risk and Willingnes

Abstract

One of the most denoted cognitive errors in terms of judgments of risk probabilities was denominator neglect, and it happens when people pay more attention to numerators (subsets) and neglect the denominators (superordinate sets) during risk judgments, and it arises from the "gist-pop-out" of the numerator according to Fuzzy Trace Theory (FTT) and is defined as a class inclusion error. Previous studies which focus on visual demonstration of risk probabilities suggest that visuals help improve risk comprehension (reduce denominator neglect) and gist/verbatim knowledge extraction. Icon arrays are known to be proper visual communicators for displaying part-to-whole relationships via showing numerator and the denominator visually and utilized in reducing denominator neglect. The main objective of the thesis is to investigate risk evaluations under different risk scenarios (Experiment 1A: non-medical; Experiment 1B: medical) and to investigate the effects of visual aids, knowledge instruction types, and numeracy, health literacy on complex risk judgments, confidence levels and willingness to choose better outcomes within the overarching scope of FTT. The main hypotheses are as follows: Visual aids and instruction types will help mitigate denominator neglect and then in turn, improve risk evaluations, and higher numeracy will yield better risk evaluation accuracies. The findings demonstrated contrary results in terms of visual aids, which have been known for mitigating the effects of denominator neglect, the effects of visual aids were not replicated. Instruction types did not have the main effect on risk evaluations to help to reduce denominator neglect. Numeracy was the most prominent factor in risk accuracy, confidence in answers, and willingness. Health literacy did not show the main effect on willingness. Denominator neglect was found only in Experiment 1B.