Ian_B_Gibson comments on Useless Medical Disclaimers - Less Wrong

16 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 19 March 2007 04:48PM

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Comment author: Ian_B_Gibson 20 March 2007 02:56:45AM 1 point [-]

The thought that occurred to me was that, innumeracy being so widespread, no one would dare put numbers on that sheet of paper. If "amputation" is listed as a consequence with a probability of 0.0001%, patients will run screaming out of the office, crying, "Not my toe! I don't want to lose my toe!" No amount of patient explanation will suffice to convince them that they ought to diminish the emotional force of their fear by a factor of one million. Each extra zero after the decimal point would only be one more symbol for their eyes to glaze over; it would not diminish the emotional force of the anticipation by an additional factor of ten.

Have any evidence for any of these assertions?