Limitations
≈0.72
Several limitations of the study need to be taken into consideration when interpreting the results. First, the sample consisted of a diverse yet highly educated group of students who are not representative of the general population in Spain. Consequently, they have higher graph literacy scores than an average person randomly drawn from the population (0.81 compared with ≈0.72 in nationally representative samples in Germany and the United StatesThe second limitation is that the information presented to participants was not of personal relevance to them. That is, they could choose a representation independent of how well they understood it without having to fear any real consequences. The results on whether (typically financial) incentives make a difference for behavior are mixed,Furthermore, there are some peculiarities in the data that we would like to discuss transparently. The first peculiarity is that numeracy was not at all related to comprehension, recall, or accessibility ratings (and in some cases even negatively so, even though with a tiny effect size). This is surprising in light of the vast literature showing the impact of numeracy on understanding health-related statistical informationThe second peculiarity is that comprehension and recall were, on average, better with the numerical than with the graphical representation. Whereas a substantial amount of literature suggests that graphical representations are helpful to understand statistical information,