The inhibitory effect of numeracy on affect heuristic in food risk perception

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of numeracy on risk and benefit perceptions of food. Previous studies have shown that people tend to rely on affect feelings when appraising risk and benefit. These studies have also shown that people manifest an inverse relationship between perceived risk and benefit. However, there have not been so many studies about the roles of numeracy and critical thinking on balanced perceptions of risk and benefit. Therefore, the present study used two online surveys to clarify their roles. Results showed that people with higher numeracy had better comprehension of food risk/benefit information. Results also showed that perceived risk and benefit had a positive correlation for people with higher numeracy after information had been provided. These results were similar between Study 1 on coffee (N = 461) and Study 2 on red and processed meat (N = 496). The results suggest that people with higher numeracy have balanced perceptions of food risk/benefit, relying more on numerical information than on affect.