Abstract Case information focusing on a particular person does not provide representative evidence on the risks or benefits for a given population. However, research on judgement and decision‐making has revealed that statistical information focusing on the population is much less influential on recipients than case information, as exemplified by the identifiable victim effect. On the other hand, studies on persuasion have reported that explanatory messages accompanied by statistical evidence change individuals' attitudes more than the narratives alone. Such findings suggest that statistical information can be influential when accompanied by explanations of what the numbers imply. However, few studies have attempted to test this hypothesis in risk perception research. The present study investigated how statistical information with explanations influenced the perceived effectiveness of a measure for reducing disaster risk, earthquake early warnings (EEWs). The results of two studies ( N = 1423), using actual statistics and person‐focused scenarios, showed that adding an explanation to negatively framed statistics indicating the ineffectiveness of EEWs reduced participants' perceived effectiveness. In contrast, positively framed statistics with an explanation did not change participants' perceptions. This study not only replicated previous findings on case information but also provided new insights into how statistical information could impact individuals' perceptions.
Yokoi et al. (Mon,) studied this question.