Odette Wegwarth

Senior Research Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin

Website Odette Wegwarth

Vita

Odette Wegwarth was a senior fellow at the Harding Centre for Risk Literacy until August 2015. She received her PhD for investigating medical decision-making by oncologists, pathologists and cancer patients regarding pharmacodiagnostic tests designed to individualise the selection of appropriate chemotherapies. Currently, her research is exploring which statistical formats promote or limit the understanding of medical risk information. The findings are used for further training measures for doctors and the design of patient brochures.

Since 2015, she has been leading the FORECEE project at the Harding Centre, and since 2017 she has been a senior researcher in the research area Adaptive Behaviour and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

Research Interests

  • Risik Literacy
  • Decision Making

Selected Publications

Wegwarth, O., Wilhelm, E., Ballalai, I., Belanger, M. E., Benjamin, P., Bertrand-Ferrandis, C., Bezbaruah, S. & Purnat, T. D. et al. (2023). Measuring the Burden of Infodemics: Summary of the Methods and Results of the Fifth WHO Infodemic Management Conference. DOI: 10.2196/44207

Wegwarth, O., Kendel, F., Tomsic, I., von Lengerke, T., & Härter, M. (2021). Die COVID-19-Pandemie: Wie gelingt eine transparente Kommunikation von Risiken? DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/pubhef-2020-0113

Wegwarth, O., & Gigerenzer, G. (2020). Statistical illiteracy in doctors. Better doctors, better patients, better decisions: envisioning health care.

Wegwarth, O., Wagner, G. G., Spies, C., & Hertwig, R. (2020). Assessment of German public attitudes toward health communications with varying degrees of scientific uncertainty regarding COVID-19. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.32335

Wegwarth, O.,  McDowell, M., Gigerenzer, G. & Rebitschek, F. G. (2019). Effect of tabular and icon fact box formats on comprehension of benefits and harms of prostate cancer screening: a randomized trial. DOI: 10.1177/0272989X18818166