{
  "title": "Communicating risk: making denominators visible",
  "url": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/communiquer-un-risque-rendre-les-denominateurs-visibles-en",
  "language": "en",
  "datePublished": "2025-09-11",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "SHR — Swiss Human Resources",
    "url": "https://www.shr.swiss",
    "address": "Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9A, 1212 Lancy, Suisse"
  },
  "summary": "An accurate percentage can still lead to a mistaken interpretation. When communicating risk, the relationships between figures matter as much as the figures themselves.",
  "section": "Research",
  "topic": "Communication",
  "place": {
    "name": "Sion",
    "region": "Valais",
    "country": "CH"
  },
  "keyPoints": [
    {
      "heading": "What the literature establishes",
      "point": "Gerd Gigerenzer and Ulrich Hoffrage (1995, Psychological Review) show that, in Bayesian reasoning tasks, presenting information as natural frequencies can facilitate correct answers compared with a probability format."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The mechanism: preserving the relationship between groups",
      "point": "Ulrich Hoffrage, Samuel Lindsey, Ralph Hertwig and Gerd Gigerenzer (2000, Science) extend this approach to the [communication](/formation/communication/sion) of statistical information, particularly in medicine."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The premature conclusion",
      "point": "One might conclude that percentages should be banned from all management communication."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What the evidence does not guarantee",
      "point": "A readable format cannot correct a poorly chosen reference population, an unreliable indicator or outdated observations."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A practical check in Sion",
      "point": "For SHR’s “Communication” programme in Sion, an exercise worth testing is to select a documented indicator from participants’ work: a hydropower alert, a healthcare screening result, vine disease detection or a warning affecting an Alpine tourism activity."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "authors": "Hoffrage",
      "year": "1995",
      "source": "Psychological Review"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Gigerenzer",
      "year": "2000",
      "source": "Science"
    }
  ],
  "wordCount": 430,
  "image": "https://www.shr.swiss/img/blog-Training-Communication-Sion-communiquer-un-risque-rendre-les-denominateurs-visibles-en.jpg?v=4",
  "translations": {
    "fr": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/communiquer-un-risque-rendre-les-denominateurs-visibles",
    "en": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/communiquer-un-risque-rendre-les-denominateurs-visibles-en",
    "de": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/communiquer-un-risque-rendre-les-denominateurs-visibles-de",
    "it": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/communiquer-un-risque-rendre-les-denominateurs-visibles-it"
  },
  "relatedPages": {
    "programme": "https://www.shr.swiss/formation/communication/sion",
    "city": "https://www.shr.swiss/formations-ville/sion",
    "blog": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog"
  },
  "citationPolicy": "Citation autorisée avec mention « SHR — Swiss Human Resources » et lien vers l'article."
}