ABSTRACT
The Association for Psychological Science publishes a series of timely monographs on Psychological Science in the Public Interest. One recent issue was from Gerd Gigerenzer and colleagues, entitled “Helping Doctors and Patients Make Sense of Health Statistics” (Gigerenzer et al., 2007). It discusses aspects of statistical literacy as it concerns health, both our own individually as well as societal health policy more generally. Some parts of being statistically literate may be fairly obvious; we know that just making up data, or suppressing information even of supposed outliers without comment, is unethical. The topics touched upon by Gigerenzer et al. (2007), however, are more subtle. If an overall admonition is needed, it is that context is always important, and the way data and information are presented is absolutely crucial to an ability to reason appropriately and act accordingly. We review several of the major issues raised by Gigerenzer et al. in the discussion to follow.
