Innumeracy in the Wild: Misunderstanding and Misusing Numbers
Ellen Peters
Abstract
Innumeracy in the Wild explains how numeric ability supports the quality of the decisions we make and, ultimately, the life outcomes we experience. It dissects three ways that people can be good or bad with numbers and how each of these numeric competencies matter to decision making. Furthermore, it delves into how we can use this knowledge to improve decision making. Understanding the roles of numeric ability (often called numeracy) is particularly important today due to widespread innumeracy. In addition, policies in health and financial domains have shifted toward giving consumers and patie ... More
Innumeracy in the Wild explains how numeric ability supports the quality of the decisions we make and, ultimately, the life outcomes we experience. It dissects three ways that people can be good or bad with numbers and how each of these numeric competencies matter to decision making. Furthermore, it delves into how we can use this knowledge to improve decision making. Understanding the roles of numeric ability (often called numeracy) is particularly important today due to widespread innumeracy. In addition, policies in health and financial domains have shifted toward giving consumers and patients more information (which is often numeric). These changes are intended to empower individuals to take charge of their own welfare. The evidence is clear, however, that not everybody is prepared to use this information effectively and that those who are less numerate tend to make worse decisions unless provided adequate support.
The book discusses four main points: the complex and systematic psychological mechanisms that underlie objective numeracy’s effects in judgment and decision making; the importance of numeracy to experiencing positive life outcomes especially in health and finances; the decision-making support provided by two additional ways of knowing and using numbers; and the methods that exploit existing evidence and enable those who are less comfortable with numbers to use them more effectively and make better choices in an often numeric world.
Keywords:
innumeracy,
numeracy,
numeric ability,
statistical literacy,
decision making,
choice,
expertise,
medical decision making,
financial decision making,
risk communication
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2020 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780190861094 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2020 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780190861094.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Ellen Peters, author
Philip H. Knight Chair, Professor of Journalism and Communication, Director of the Media Center for Science and Technology, Univeristy of Oregon
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