Spotlight on numeracy: How to use data for better communications messaging

The use of quantitative data in communication can be very powerful. However, numeric information is only effective if people understand it.

Ellen Peters, the Philip H. Knight chair and director of the Center for Science Communication Research (SCR) at the University of Oregon, has studied and written about human judgment and decision-making with a particular focus on numbers and numeracy, which is the ability to process and use numbers effectively.

In her 302-page book, “Innumeracy in the Wild: Misunderstanding and Misusing Numbers,”  she sets out to answer three main questions:

While this book is written primarily for academic researchers, it’s also a wonderful resource for PR, communications and marketing professionals, as we are often tasked with communicating numeric information. A better understanding of numeracy can help communicators improve techniques, allowing audiences who are less adept at grasping abstract numeric information to understand and harness stories embedded in numbers and statistics.