Ratings of Orally Presented Verbal Expressions of Probability by a Heterogeneous Sample

Abstract

Verbal expressions of probability are used in daily conversations, physician‐physician and physician‐patient communications, and questionnaire and interview responses. To assess the degree of agreement among English‐speaking Australian adults in allocating numerical probabilities to these verbal expressions of probability, 966 interviewees provided estimates for 60 isolated expressions of probability and a sequence of seven items placed in a sequence. Means and median scores appeared to be consistent with common sense and with findings from other countries. Mirror‐imaged terms were neither symmetrical nor equidistant, with the means and medians for the positive terms being closer to the mid‐..