Bringing meaning to numbers: The impact of evaluative categories on decisions.

Decision makers are often quite poor at using numeric information in decisions. The results of 4 experimentsdemonstrate that a manipulation of evaluative meaning (i.e., the extent to which an attribute can be mappedonto a good/bad scale; this manipulation is accomplished through the addition of visual boundary lines andevaluative labels to a graphical format) has a robust influence in health judgments and choices and acrossdiverse adult populations. The manipulation resulted in greater use of numeric quality-of-care information injudgments and less reliance on an irrelevant affective state among the less numerate. Recall results forprovided quality-of-care numbers suggested that the manipulation did not influence depth of number processingwith the exception of cost information that was not remembered as well. Results of a reaction-timeparadigm revealed that feelings were more accessible than thoughts in the presence of the manipulation,suggesting that the effect may be due, at least in part, to an affective mechanism. Numeric information is oftenprovided in decisions, but may not be usable by consumers without assistance from information providers.Implications for consumer decision making and the functions of affect are discussed