A study found that knowing more regarding a risk lowered the level of risk perception.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, USA, looked at how people perceive risk and found that if they knew specifically how likely something was, they felt less risky.
The researchers analyzed the results of 13 studies involving 1,500 participants living in the United States. In one experiment, through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform, 390 study subjects were assigned to three groups and provided with the information that ‘everyone has a 58% chance of being bitten by a flea that causes a newly discovered bacterial infection’. did.
The two groups were then given more specific information. One group was given information regarding the different types of fleas that might cause infection, and subjects who learned this information were more likely to be bitten by the fleas.
The third group was given information regarding the possibility of being bitten by various types of fleas and the probability of being bitten. As a result, the group with specific probability information perceived that the information initially received was less likely to actually happen.
“Given all the individual reasons along with their probabilities, which may seem like reinforcing perceptions of how important the event is, it actually reduces the overall risk,” the researchers said. It can help alleviate the fear of
The researchers note that it is increasingly important how agencies and policy makers provide information regarding health risks. It can help to refine the content so that it can be used.”
The results of this study were published in the ‘Journal of Experimental Psychology: General’ under the title ‘The unlikelihood effect: When knowing more creates the perception of less’.
