Abstract
Since real-world phenomena often involve uncertainty, people use verbal probability expressions to communicate these phenomena and make decisions based on them. Previous studies have shown that not only the numerical information conveyed by verbal expressions (e.g., "slight chance" conveys a low probability, while "almost certain" conveys a high probability), but also the nuances (e.g., positive expressions such as "slight chance" or negative expressions such as "little chance") affect our decision-making. In the present study, we compared the performance of decision making based on verbal probability expressions between people with autistic traits and those from general population. Results showed that people with autistic traits are 1) strongly affected by verbal nuances and 2) less affected by numerical information conveyed by expressions, indicating that they understand uncertainty and make decisions differently from people from general population. This indicates that people with autistic traits understand uncertainty and make decisions with characteristic way.
