The 1-in-X effect in perceptions of risk likelihood differences

Kwanho Suk, Sanyoung Hwang and Yunjoo Jeong

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2022, vol. 170, issue C

Abstract: In risk communication, 1-in-X and N-in-10p ratios are used frequently to present likelihood information. This research examines the effect of numeric formats (1-in-X vs. N-in-10p) on perceived difference in multiple risk likelihoods through six experiments (N = 2,254). We find that the perceived difference in risk likelihoods is greater when the information is presented as the 1-in-X ratio than the N-in-10p ratio in the context of risk increase and reduction, which in turn also affects risk-related downstream behavioral consequences such as behavioral intentions, willingness to pay, and donation target selection. Furthermore, the numeric format effect is greater as risk levels become lower. The reason is because the two formats differ in terms of which fraction element is fixed (i.e., a fixed numerator in the 1-in-X format and a fixed denominator in the N-in-10p format) and how the varying fraction element changes with probability levels. Study results imply that the numeric format effect is because of the overestimation of the difference of the risk likelihoods presented in the 1-in-X format. The findings have important theoretical and practical implications for risk communication.

Keywords: Framing of numeric information; Risk communication; Risk difference perception; Risk likelihood perception (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597822000152
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:170:y:2022:i:c:s0749597822000152

DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2022.104131

Access Statistics for this article

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes is currently edited by John M. Schaubroeck

More articles in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().