Probability, Verbal Expressions of

Verbal expressions of probability are those used for communicating degrees of uncertainty, such as likely, very likely, possible, and uncertain, in contrast with numerical expressions, such as “The probability of X is 70%” or “The odds are 3 to 1.”

Correspondence between Verbal and Numerical Expressions

Since the 1960s, several authors have studied the equivalence between verbal and numerical expressions of probability. The typical experiment consists in selecting a set of linguistic expressions, asking a group of subjects to translate each one into a percentage or a number between 0 and 1, and building a table or a graph that summarizes the results. Most of such studies include expressions that do not represent probabilities in a strict sense.

Variability of Numerical Assignments

Several experiments have indicated low within-subject variability, ...

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