3 ms·
Choosing words to clearly describe data
- NovemberWhiskey 6y agoThere's a classic example of this with the way the National Weather Service provides forecasts of the likelihood of severe storms. Put the following into increasing order of likelihood: High, Slight, Moderate, Enhanced, Marginal When surveyed, members of the general public most commonly sorted them: Slight, Marginal, Moderate, Enhanced, High. Whereas the NWS intends: Marginal, Slight, Enhanced, Moderate, High. The WaPo has an article about it from a few weeks ago. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/06/10/storm-prediction-center-risk-categories/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/06/10/storm-pred...
- andreareina 6y agoSeems I'm in the middle, I'd have gone Marginal, Slight, Moderate, Enhanced, High. I wonder what's the thinking that puts Slight < Marginal.
- adatavizguy 6y agoI read the title and thought this article might have more to do with my spending 10 minutes finding the perfect variable name.
- andreareina 6y ago> Berry also pointed out that if the word “common” is used to indicate a 1-10% chance of a nasty side effect (which is recommended usage in the EU for medication leaflets), but a patient thinks that “common” means a 50% chance (which is how many of Berry’s subjects interpreted the word), then the patient might refuse to take the medication because of this misunderstanding. 1-10% chance of a nasty side-effect is high. So yeah, I'd say "common" is appropriate.