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Science 22 December 2000:
Vol. 290. no. 5500, pp. 2261 - 2262
DOI: 10.1126/science.290.5500.2261
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Policy Forum

MEDICINE:
Communicating Statistical Information

Ulrich Hoffrage,* Samuel Lindsey, Ralph Hertwig, Gerd Gigerenzer

Most people, experts included, have difficulties understanding and combining statistical information effectively. Hoffrage et al. demonstrate that these difficulties can be considerably reduced by communicating the information in terms of natural frequencies rather than in terms of probabilities. Several applications in medicine, legal decision-making, and education are discussed.

U. Hoffrage, R. Hertwig, and G. Gigerenzer are at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany. S. Lindsey is at the Department of Psychology, 102 Gilmer Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA.

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hoffrage{at}mpib-berlin.mpg.de

This Policy Forum was collaboratively written to combine work submitted to Science independently by the first and second authors.

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E-Letters:

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An Uninformative Example
Philip Taylor
Science Online, 17 Jan 2001 [Full text]
Response to "An Uninformative Example"
Ulrich Hoffrage
Science Online, 26 Jan 2001 [Full text]

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