One group saw the measure described as saving 150 lives. The other group saw the measure described as saving 98% of 150 lives. The hypothesis motivating the experiment was that saving 150 lives sounds vaguely good—is that a lot? a little? - while saving 98% of something is clearly very good because 98% is so close to the upper bound of the percentage scale. Lo and behold, saving 150 lives had mean support of 10.4, while saving 98% of 150 lives had mean support of 13.6.
Pragmatics of normal language usage prescribes that any explicitly supplied information will be relevant to the hearer. Assuming that “98%” is relevant, and no other useful information, it is rational to support a measure with such a high level of efficiency, and to support it more than one for which no efficiency figure is provided.
Pragmatics of normal language usage prescribes that any explicitly supplied information will be relevant to the hearer. Assuming that “98%” is relevant, and no other useful information, it is rational to support a measure with such a high level of efficiency, and to support it more than one for which no efficiency figure is provided.