Abstract Background In times of crisis, when people are faced with an ongoing series of unstable situations characterized by uncertainty, they lack the qualitative statistical evidence needed to help them deal with risks. Therefore, critically understanding and dealing with uncertain events in a risk-literate manner cannot be based on the comprehension of evidence and the calculation of risks. However, individuals who are risk literate may still succeed in uncertain situations. We hypothesize that two facets of risk literacy—numeracy and graph literacy—can facilitate learning about decision cues and beneficial strategies in situations where qualitative evidence is lacking. Our aim is to indicate how risk literates use beneficial rules of thumb as strategies for overcoming everyday life challenges. Method We conducted an online survey with a sample of adults from Germany ( N = 632) to investigate whether self-reported sensitive use of beneficial rules of thumb in everyday life (as opposed to those with unclear benefits) is related to numeracy, graph literacy and risk literacy, as measured by a composite outcome. A cluster analysis was performed to explore different demographic profiles of sensitive use. Results There was no evidence of an association between numeracy, graph literacy and risk literacy and a sensitive use of beneficial rules of thumb. Rules of thumb were more likely to be reported as being used with increasing age. Discussion Although facets of risk literacy theoretically help one to learn about decision cues and beneficial strategies, they are not necessarily related to more sensitive use of heuristic decision-making strategies in situations of uncertainty. It seems likely that a relevant group of low-literate people will practice heuristic decision-making under uncertainty to their benefit. We discuss implications for teaching decision-making under uncertainty.
Rebitschek et al. (Wed,) studied this question.