Description:
Verbal probability phrases are often used to express risks. However, it has been shown in various languages that people interpret these risks very differently. We did a replication study to assess the interpretation of 29 Dutch phrases that are often used in news paper articles.
Our survey was distributed among both statisticians and non-statisticians with Dutch as their native language. The responses from 881 participants indeed showed a large variability in the interpretation of Dutch phrases, even among statisticians. Hence, the use of phrases to convey a probability can easily lead to miscommunications.
Output:
You can find all details of this study in the scientific article:
Willems, S. J. W., Albers, C. J. and Smeets, I. (2020). ‘Variability in the interpretation of probability phrases used in Dutch news articles — a risk for miscommunication’. JCOM19(02), A03. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.19020203.
We also wrote a blog post (in Dutch) about the results, read it here.