Longer Vs. Shorter Denominations of Unemployment and Inflation Rates: an Experimental Survey

Some researchers have provided evidence that contradicts the intuitive expectation that people perceive lower values expressed in a longer denomination (e.g., two dollars and eighty-five cents) as larger than higher values expressed in a shorter denomination (e.g., three dollars). Using an experimental survey of 637 respondents, we examine this bias in the context of messages about unemployment and inflation. Our results differ from previous research in that we found no evidence of this bias. Specifically, participants did not perceive the number of unemployed and the inflation rate as higher and more serious simply because they are presented in larger denominations. Our findings suggest that communication about these dimensions that relies on the potential of numerosity heuristics should be used cautiously.