On Criteria of Insignificant Difference Between Two Risks

The comparison and ranking of risks is very important for safety and cost-benefit analysis. Most formats present risks in the form of probability distribution. Different ranking criteria for probability distributions are considered. It is demonstrated that significantly overlapping distributions lead to ambiguous results. For this reason, criteria of insignificant overlapping distributions are proposed. The first criterion uses the information theory approach; and the second criterion uses the statistical tests approach. Both approaches can be applied to decision theory to avoid questionable decisions based on statistically insignificant differences between two risks.