This dissertation reports on a study that explored how individuals interpret and quantify verbal descriptions of the risk of side effects from a hypothetical prescription pain medication, as well as what factors affect these interpretations. While the European Union has set out recommendations for how these terms quantifiers (e.g., "very rare," "common") should be interpreted, studies (Cox, 2016; Berry, Knapp, & Raynor, 2002; Knapp, Raynor, & Berry, 2004) indicate that individuals dramatically overestimate these effects' likelihood. Situated within fuzzy trace theory (Reyna & Brainerd, 1995) the present study assessed how individuals quantify these terms, as well as what internal (e.g., numeracy, existing perceptions of prescription pain medications) and external (e.g., verbal quantifiers used, severity of side effect) factors influence their gist and verbatim processing of risk information. The study used a between-subjects experimental design: 2 ("common"/"rare") X 2 (adverb/no adverb) X 2 (severity) embedded within an online survey about impressions of prescription pain medications. Findings reveal that individuals' existing, general perceptions of prescription pain medications have a larger impact on their gist perceptions than their verbatim ones, while their estimates are significantly higher than experts' recommendations. Important differences between the subjective and objective numeracy scales are also found for participants' confidence in their numerical estimates. Other findings related to the study of risk perceptions, as well as implications for practice and policy, are discussed.
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