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Comment by automatwon | Hacker News Reader

Would saying "Go to the RIGHT hospital and you're 3 Times more likely to live?" be equivalent?

Not really. Suppose 1 / 100 people die at a good hospital and 3 / 100 die at a bad hospital.

If you go to a bad hospital, you're 3x more likely to die. But if you go to a good hospital, you're 99 / 97 or roughly 2% more likely to live.

Thank you, that's almost crystal clear.

Suppose 1 in 100 patients (for X) die at the best hospital and 3 in 100 die at the worst.

Keeping percents the numbers are much less scare mongering.

  Best:  1% die, 99% live
  Worst: 3% die, 97% live

Comparing the percents makes it sound much more significant "three times" (sounds like 300%, in an emotional sense).