Li, Meng. 100% of anything looks good -- the appeal of one hundred percent and the psychology of vaccination. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T34B31P9
DescriptionPeople overweight certainty, even when it is just an illusion. In study 1, participants (N = 470) preferred a vaccine that was 100% effective against viral infections that cause 70% of cancer cases to a vaccine that was 70% effective against infections that cause 100% of cancer cases. Study 2 (N = 129) illustrated the appeal of 100%, even if it does not refer to probability: vaccines with either 100% effectiveness or 100% target range were preferred to other vaccines that were less than 100% effective towards less than 100% target. The preference for 100% effectiveness towards a subset of targets was unaffected by framing the vaccine in a broader target scope. We propose that people overweight 100% in general when they make decisions involving percentage, be it probability, proportion of population, or subset, despite the fact that almost anything can be described as 100% of something.