It's hard to make good decisions if you don't understand numbers.

Whether it's choosing a health insurance plan, deciding whether to buy a house, or weighing the risks and benefits of taking a new medication, many important life decisions hinge on understanding numbers, statistics, or probability.

Today we're going to talk to a psychologist who studies how people

process numbers, perceive risk, and make decisions about what it means to be numerate and why

numeracy matters. We'll discuss how common in numeracy is and how it affects people's health,

financial security, and other life outcomes. We'll also talk about how you can improve your confidence and ability with numbers,

even if you had many years past your last high school math class.

Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological Association

that examines the links between psychological science

and everyday life. I'm Kim Mills. My guest today is Dr. Ellen Peters, director of the Center for

Science Communication Research at the University of Oregon, and a professor in the Department of

Psychology and the School of Journalism and Communication.

She studies how people understand numerical information, perceive risk, and make decisions.

She also studies how doctors, public officials, and other communicators can present numerical

information in a way that helps people understand it better.

Dr. Peters is an APA fellow and a fellow

of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She's the author of hundreds of peer-reviewed

academic papers and of the 2020 book, Inumeracy in the Wild, Misunderstanding and Misusing

Numbers. Dr. Peters, thank you for joining me today. Kim, it's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Let's start as we often do on this podcast with a definition. What does it mean to be numerate or

innumerate? How do you measure people's numeracy? So we call it objective numeracy because it has to

do with how well people answer, um, answer

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