IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/medema/v30y2010i6p661-671.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Demonstration of ‘‘Less Can Be More’’ in Risk Graphics

Author

Listed:
  • Brian J. Zikmund-Fisher

    (VA Health Services Research & Development Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI, Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, bzikmund@umich.edu)

  • Angela Fagerlin

    (VA Health Services Research & Development Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI, Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI)

  • Peter A. Ubel

    (VA Health Services Research & Development Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI, Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine, Ann Arbor, MI, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI)

Abstract

Background. Online tools such as Adjuvant! provide tailored estimates of the possible outcomes of adjuvant therapy options available to breast cancer patients. The graphical format typically displays 4 outcomes simultaneously: survival, mortality due to cancer, other-cause mortality, and incremental survival due to adjuvant treatment. Objective. To test whether simpler formats that present only baseline and incremental survival would improve comprehension of the relevant risk statistics and/or affect treatment intentions. Design. Randomized experimental manipulation of risk graphics shown included in Internet-administered survey vignettes about adjuvant therapy decisions for breast cancer patients with ER + tumors. Participants. Demographically diverse, stratified random samples of women ages 40 to 74 y recruited from an Internet research panel. Intervention. Participants were randomized to view either pictographs (icon arrays) that displayed all 4 possible outcomes or pictographs that showed only survival outcomes. Measurements. Comprehension of key statistics, task completion times, graph evaluation ratings, and perceived interest in adjuvant chemotherapy. Results. In the primary study (N = 832), participants who viewed survival-only pictographs had better accuracy when reporting the total chance of survival with both chemotherapy and hormonal therapy (63% v. 50%, P

Suggested Citation

  • Brian J. Zikmund-Fisher & Angela Fagerlin & Peter A. Ubel, 2010. "A Demonstration of ‘‘Less Can Be More’’ in Risk Graphics," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 30(6), pages 661-671, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:30:y:2010:i:6:p:661-671
    DOI: 10.1177/0272989X10364244
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272989X10364244
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0272989X10364244?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hogarth, Robin M. (ed.), 1990. "Insights in Decision Making," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226348551, December.
    2. Brian J. Zikmund-Fisher & Dylan M. Smith & Peter A. Ubel & Angela Fagerlin, 2007. "Validation of the Subjective Numeracy Scale: Effects of Low Numeracy on Comprehension of Risk Communications and Utility Elicitations," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 27(5), pages 663-671, September.
    3. repec:cup:judgdm:v:1:y:2006:i::p:64-75 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Baron, Jonathan, 1997. "Confusion of Relative and Absolute Risk in Valuation," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 301-309, May-June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Slovic, Paul & Finucane, Melissa & Peters, Ellen & MacGregor, Donald G., 2002. "Rational actors or rational fools: implications of the affect heuristic for behavioral economics," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 329-342.
    2. Paul Slovic & Melissa L. Finucane & Ellen Peters & Donald G. MacGregor, 2004. "Risk as Analysis and Risk as Feelings: Some Thoughts about Affect, Reason, Risk, and Rationality," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(2), pages 311-322, April.
    3. Moore, Don A. & Cain, Daylian M., 2007. "Overconfidence and underconfidence: When and why people underestimate (and overestimate) the competition," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 197-213, July.
    4. Thunström, Linda & Nordström, Jonas & Shogren, Jason F., 2015. "Certainty and overconfidence in future preferences for food," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 101-113.
    5. Lucius Caviola & Nadira Faulmüller & Jim. A. C. Everett & Julian Savulescu & Guy Kahane, 2014. "The evaluability bias in charitable giving: Saving administration costs or saving lives?," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 9(4), pages 303-315, July.
    6. Miguel Godinho de Matos & Pedro Ferreira, 2020. "The Effect of Binge-Watching on the Subscription of Video on Demand: Results from Randomized Experiments," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1337-1360, December.
    7. Kawagoe, Toshiji & Narita, Yusuke, 2014. "Guilt aversion revisited: An experimental test of a new model," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 1-9.
    8. Yaniv Hanoch & Talya Miron-Shatz & Mary Himmelstein, 2010. "Genetic testing and risk interpretation: How do women understand lifetime risk results?," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 5(2), pages 116-123, April.
    9. Edmonds, Joyce K. & Hruschka, Daniel & Bernard, H. Russell & Sibley, Lynn, 2012. "Women’s social networks and birth attendant decisions: Application of the Network-Episode Model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 452-459.
    10. A. Peter McGraw & Eldar Shafir & Alexander Todorov, 2010. "Valuing Money and Things: Why a $20 Item Can Be Worth More and Less Than $20," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(5), pages 816-830, May.
    11. Alberini, Anna & Ščasný, Milan, 2018. "The benefits of avoiding cancer (or dying from cancer): Evidence from a four- country study," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 249-262.
    12. Ariely, Dan & Zauberman, Gal, 2003. "Differential partitioning of extended experiences," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 128-139, July.
    13. Jacob Goeree & Jens GroЯer, 2004. "False Consensus Voting and Welfare Reducing Polls," Working Paper Series in Economics 9, University of Cologne, Department of Economics.
    14. Kirill Gavrilov, 2013. "Risk, psychophysical numbing and value of individual and community lives: an empirical study," HSE Working papers WP BRP 09/PSY/2013, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    15. Robert L. Winkler & Robert T. Clemen, 2004. "Multiple Experts vs. Multiple Methods: Combining Correlation Assessments," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 1(3), pages 167-176, September.
    16. Sagoff, M., 1998. "Aggregation and deliberation in valuing environmental public goods:: A look beyond contingent pricing," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2-3), pages 213-230, February.
    17. repec:cup:judgdm:v:3:y:2008:i:8:p:595-606 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Francesco Ferrante, 2009. "Education, Aspirations and Life Satisfaction," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 542-562, November.
    19. Jacob Goeree & Jens Großer, 2007. "Welfare Reducing Polls," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 31(1), pages 51-68, April.
    20. repec:cup:judgdm:v:8:y:2013:i:4:p:397-406 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Alan Shiell & Janelle Seymour & Penelope Hawe & Sue Cameron, 2000. "Are preferences over health states complete?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(1), pages 47-55, January.
    22. Scott K. Aberegg & Hal Arkes & Peter B. Terry, 2006. "Failure to Adopt Beneficial Therapies Caused by Bias in Medical Evidence Evaluation," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 26(6), pages 575-582, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:30:y:2010:i:6:p:661-671. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.