Being good at math relates to better financial and medical outcomes — unless you don’t have confidence in your own abilities with numbers, new research suggests. In two studies, researchers found that the key to success in personal finances and dealing with a complex disease was a match between a person’s math abilities and how comfortable and assured he or she felt using those skills.

In two studies, researchers found that the key to success in personal finances and dealing with a complex disease was a match between a person’s math abilities and how comfortable and assured he or she felt using those skills.

A lack of numeric confidence can essentially wipe out most of the advantage a person with good math skills may have, said Ellen Peters, who completed the work as a professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.

And the effects were not small. Take, for example, people who scored 100 percent on a math test used in this research, published today (Sept. 9, 2019) in the journal PNAS.

Having high confidence in their math ability compared to low confidence was the equivalent of having $94,000 more in annual income.

«If you have low numeric confidence, all the math skills in the world appear not to help much,» said Peters, who is now at the University of Oregon.

Story Source: Materials provided by Ohio State University. Original written by Jeff Grabmeier. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.