Learned Today: If It's Hard To Say, It Must Be Risky

These results show that people consistently classify difficult to pronounce items as risky, and this is the case for both undesirable risks (such as getting sick on a roller coaster or hazardous food additive) as well as desirable risks (such as an adventurous amusement park ride). These findings also suggest that risk perception may be influenced by the way the items are presented – if they are difficult to process (such as hard to pronounce names), they will be viewed as being inherently riskier. The authors note that these findings are relevant for risk communication and they suggest that difficult product names “may alert consumers to the risks posed by potentially hazardous products, possibly motivating them to pay closer attention to warnings and instructions.”
If It’s Hard To Say, It Must Be Risky.