Okan, Y., Garcia‐Retamero, R., Cokely, E. T., & Maldonado, A. (2012). Individual differences in graph literacy: Overcoming denominator neglect in risk comprehension. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 25(4), 390-401.

Okan, Y.; Garcia‐Retamero, R.; Cokely, E.; Maldonado, A.

2012

Okan, Y., Garcia‐Retamero, R., Cokely, E. T., & Maldonado, A. (2012). Individual differences in graph literacy: Overcoming denominator neglect in risk comprehension. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 25(4), 390-401.

Graph literacy is an often neglected skill that influences decision making performance. We conducted an experiment to investigate whetherindividual differences in graph literacy affect the extent to which people benefit from visual aids (icon arrays) designed to reduce a commonjudgment bias (i.e., denominator neglect—a focus on numerators in ratios while neglecting denominators). Results indicated that icon arraysmore often increased risk comprehension accuracy and confi dence among participants with high graph literacy as compared with those withlow graph literacy. Results held regardless of how the health message was framed (chances of dying versus chances of surviving). Findingscontribute to our understanding of the ways in which individual differences in cognitive abilities interact with the comprehension of differentrisk representation formats. Theoretical, methodological, and prescriptive implications of the results are discussed (e.g., the effective commu-nication of quantitative medical data).

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