Do icon arrays help reduce denominator neglect?
Garcia-Retamero, Galesic and Gigerenzer report two experiments on how people interpret risk reduction figures when the compared groups differ in size. Participants tended to focus on the numerators and neglect the denominators. Adding icon arrays to the numerical information drew attention to the denominators and improved the accuracy of risk judgments, with a similar benefit for younger and older adults. The authors conclude that icon arrays are an effective way to eliminate denominator neglect and that the difficulty lies largely in how the problem is represented.
Garcia-Retamero, Galesic and Gigerenzer report two experiments on how people interpret risk reduction figures when the compared groups differ in size. Participants tended to focus on the numerators and neglect the denominators. Adding icon arrays to the numerical information drew attention to the denominators and improved the accuracy of risk judgments, with a similar benefit for younger and older adults. The authors conclude that icon arrays are an effective way to eliminate denominator neglect and that the difficulty lies largely in how the problem is represented.
Written from the abstract summary, RePEc record, 2026-10-31.
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Garcia-Retamero, R., Galesic, M., & Gigerenzer, G. (2010). Do icon arrays help reduce denominator neglect? Medical Decision Making, 30(6), 672-684. doi:10.1177/0272989X10369000 https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989X10369000