How do people perceive graphical risk communication? The role of subjective numeracy

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate directly how a graphical risk ladder is perceived and how this perception is related to people’s subjective numeracy. Gaze durations and frequencies were used to examine visual attention. Participants (N = 47) appeared to focus on the target risk information, whereas referential information was less attended. Subjective numeracy was negatively correlated with total watching time and the absolute number of gaze events. Results suggest that participants with low subjective numeracy have more difficulty in comprehending the graph, and that they process the graphical information less efficiently than the participants with high subjective numeracy. In addition, the position of referential risks on risk ladders could influence people’s risk perception. Based on these findings, we provide some implications for the design of risk communication graphs and for the use of graphs in informing persons with low subjective numeracy about risks.

Keywords:

• graphical risk communication
• visual attention
• eye‐tracking
• subjective numeracy
• Paling perspective scale

Notes

1. Not shown in Figure 2 is an AOI labelled ‘scale undefined’, which means that the gaze is somewhere on the scale, but not clearly focused on one of the scale points.