Life in an increasingly information-rich but highly uncertain world calls for an effective means of communicating uncertainty to a range of audiences. Senders prefer to convey uncertainty using verbal (e.g., likely) rather than numeric (e.g., 75% chance) probabilities, even in consequential domains, such as climate science. However, verbal probabilities can convey something other than uncertainty, and senders may exploit this. For instance, senders can maintain credibility after making erroneous predictions. While verbal probabilities afford ease of expression, they can be easily misunderstood, and the potential for miscommunication is not effectively mitigated by assigning (imprecise) numeric probabilities to words. When making consequential decisions, recipients prefer (precise) numeric probabilities.

生活在一个信息日益丰富但高度不确定的世界中，需要一种有效的方式向一系列受众传达不确定性。发送者更喜欢使用口头（例如，可能）而不是数字（例如，75% 的机会）概率来传达不确定性，即使在诸如气候科学之类的后果领域也是如此。但是，口头概率可以传达不确定性以外的其他内容，发送者可能会利用这一点。例如，发件人可以在做出错误预测后保持可信度。虽然口头概率易于表达，但它们很容易被误解，并且通过将（不精确的）数字概率分配给单词并不能有效地减轻误解的可能性。在做出相应的决定时，接受者更喜欢（精确的）数字概率。