Medicine side effects are generally overestimated. This is possibly caused by the tendency to describe any risk at 50%, referred to as the “50% blips”. These 50% blips have been associated with...Show moreMedicine side effects are generally overestimated. This is possibly caused by the tendency to describe any risk at 50%, referred to as the “50% blips”. These 50% blips have been associated with participants indicating to not knowing the answer and low numeracy levels. The aim of this study is to investigate whether we observe the 50% blips in a series of low probability side effects risk estimation questions and to analyse if this can be explained by the participants’ confidence in their estimation. Data was collected through a survey, consisting of a Subjective Numeracy Scale (SNS), four side effect risk estimation questions and a follow-up question to assess the participants’ confidence in their answer. We observed no uses of 50%. We presume this is a consequence of our study set-up, primarily because our research sample is highly homogenous and consisted of high education level and high numeracy level students. We conclude that the 50% blips does not apply in high education and high numeracy level groups. This is in line with previous research that found an association between the use of 50% and low education and high numeracy level. More research on this topic is needed to gain further insight into the underlying mechanisms of health risk estimations on Patient Information Leaflets (PILs).Show less
