Uncertainty reduction theory

Postpositivist communication theory developed in 1975
The uncertainty reduction theory, also known as initial interaction theory, developed in 1975 by Charles Berger and Richard Calabrese, is a communication theory from the post positivist tradition. It is one of the few communication theories that specifically looks into the initial interaction between people prior to the actual communication process. Uncertainty reduction theory originators main goal when constructing it was to explain how communication is used to reduce uncertainty between strangers during a first interaction. Uncertainty reduction theory claims that everyone activates two processes in order to reduce uncertainty. The first being a proactive process, which focuses on what someone might do. The second being a retroactive process, which focuses on how people understand what another does or says. This theory's main claim is that people must receive information about another party in order to reduce their uncertainty and, that people want to do so. While uncertainty reduction theory claims that communication will lead to reduced uncertainty, it is important to note that this is not always the case. Dr. Dale E. Brashers of the University of Illinois argues that in some scenarios, more communication may lead to greater uncertainty. They assume uncertainty is reduced when the amount of alternatives is limited and/or the alternatives chosen tend to be repetitive. In 1975, Berger and Calabrese created uncertainty reduction theory "to explain how communication is used to reduce uncertainties between strangers engaging in their first conversation together". Further research expanded uncertainty reduction theory's explanatory power in areas such as verbal communication, nonverbal communication, intimacy, reciprocity, and information seeking, etc. Scholars suggest that people should use "variety of sources when collecting information to reduce their uncertainty." The variety sources include not only the words being said, but also the way people say. Brashers helped to further expand the scope of uncertainty reduction theory outside the traditional dyadic interpersonal exchange. Now, scholars talk about uncertainty reduction, they tend to take humanity's discomfort with uncertainty as a basic tenet of what it means to be human, which is in grander terms.

Retroactive uncertainty reduction is the process of analyzing the situation post interaction, which refers to making explanations for the other person's behavior and interpreting the meaning of behavioral choices. In addition to that, socio communication orientation, which refers to people's ability to be a good speaker and good listener, is negatively associated with uncertainty in intercultural communication. Studies have been conducted to determine the differences in the uses of uncertainty reduction strategies among various ethnicities. A study, conducted in the United States, suggests that significant differences are apparent. Self disclosure has a pan cultural effect on attributional confidence but other types of uncertainty reduction strategies appeared to be more culture specific. "A multiple comparisons analysis using a least significance difference criterion indicated that for both self and other disclosure, African Americans used greater self disclosure than Euro Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans and perceived greater other intraethnic disclosure. The only other significant differences found in the multiple comparisons test were between self and other disclosure levels for Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans, namely, the former perceived greater self and other disclosure levels than Asian Americans." This result also proves that the sixth axiom of uncertainty reduction theory may be weak, which claims a positive relationship between similarity and uncertainty reduction. However, as Korean Americans' intimacy level of communication content increased, their uncertainty level toward Americans decreased. But these two tested axioms are only a partially useful formulation for understanding such intercultural communication. The study also expressed an individual's culture influences their selection of uncertainty reduction strategies. It shows that the effects of the similarity/dissimilarity of interviewers' and interviewees' nonverbal behaviors exhibited during an intercultural hiring interview have some effects on interviewers' perceptions of and hiring decisions about interviewees, but such effects are much less than Berger and Calabrese claim. Hogg bases his argument on the premise that subjective uncertainty, especially those about one's self and identity are unpleasant and that people strive to reduce uncertainties they feel about themselves. A person's self categorization is affected by group identification including nationality, religion, gender, ethnicity and many other associated groups. Thus people continue to try to reduce the uncertainties they feel about themselves by identifying with even more specific groups. There is also evidence that people who are highly uncertain about themselves are more likely to identify with more homogeneous groups to reduce their uncertainty of self and reach a more definite state. Generally, people will be able to reduce their self uncertainty either significantly or to a low degree, depending on the type of group they join and to what extent one can relate to his or herself within a group.

Scholarly studies have examined the practical application of uncertainty reduction theory in the context of job hiring by studying the communication process between interviewers and applicants prior and during an interview. Understanding the interview process as an interactive communication process aimed to reduce uncertainty is important to organizations, as it has been proven that the more positive and negative information about expectations and organizational norms are shared during the interview process, both by the applicant and interviewer, the greater the job satisfaction and the less turnover rates. An applicant's interview satisfaction is measured in terms of the amount of information and time given to the applicant. Findings suggest that applicants prefer conversational questions that helps them reduce uncertainties about the job they are applying to. The interview is suggested to be the initial means of communication in which both participants thrive to reduce their uncertainties. Both interviewees and interviewers engage in strategies to reduce uncertainty.

When our health and wellness is in doubt, we usually ask doctors and nurses for help to reduce the anxiety associated with uncertainty. This is the process of reducing uncertainty. According to Stephen W. Littlejohn, Karen A. Foss, "Uncertainty reduction theory has been used to guide examination of the ways e mail is used between doctors and patients to provide relevant information concerning health care diagnosis and treatment." In addition, Vivian C. Sheer and Rebecca J. Cline proposed and tested a model of perceived information adequacy and uncertainty reduction in doctor‐patient interactions.

Given that uncertainty reduction theory was primarily developed for face to face interactions, critics have questioned the theory's applicability to computer mediated communication (CMC). Pratt, Wiseman, Cody and Wendt argue that the theory is only partially effective in asynchronous, computer mediated environments. Although many computer mediated communications limit the possibility of utilizing many traditional social cues theories, such as social information processing and the hyperpersonal model, suggest individuals are quite capable of reducing uncertainties and developing intimate relationships. Antheunis, Marjolijn L., et al. investigated whether language based strategies, employed by computer mediated communication users, would aid in reducing uncertainties despite the absence of nonverbal cues. Examining three interactive uncertainty reduction strategies (i. e., self disclosure, question asking, and question/disclosure intimacy) in computer mediated communications, the study questioned the use of language based strategies to three communication options: face to face, visual CMC supported by a webcam, or text only CMC.

In an online consumer to consumer (C2C) e commerce context, transactions usually happen directly between individuals with a third party involved acting as an intermediary or a communication platform, but not guaranteeing that the transaction happens. Therefore, C2C e commerce platforms constantly involve initial interaction between strangers that is motivated by the desire to exchange a product for money. Such environments are a significant risk for both the seller and the buyer, given the financial and psychological cost of a transaction failing because of a lack of information. Online auction platforms such as eBay are considered to be risky and uncertain environments for exchange, especially from the standpoint of the bidder, as there is limited information available regarding both the merchandise and the seller. Using uncertainty reduction theory and predicted outcome value theory, a study of 6477 randomly selected data sets of auctions conducted on eBay. com indicated that the more detailed information about a certain product was available as part of the product description the more bids there were and the higher the final bid was. In addition, a higher seller's reputation resulted in more bids and a higher selling price. One means to reduce the uncertainty of a product's worth is having extensive descriptions and pictures of the item available and more positive feedback from previous users. Findings from the study illustrate that uncertainty reduction theory provides an insightful framework in which individuals' initial interactions in the context of online auctions can be understood. The study also provides evidence that strategies for reducing uncertainty in online initial interaction are similar to those used in face to face transactions. Although online auction users seem to favor passive strategies, including viewing product information and seller reputation, there are more active strategies in use: a user may look up the seller in other online platforms to gather relevant information or may use an interactive strategy, sending a private message to the seller asking for more information.

Online dating sites typically bring together individuals who have no prior contact with one another and no shared physical space where nonverbal cues can be communicated through gestures, facial expression and physical distance. This limited access to nonverbal cues produces a different set of concerns for individuals, as well as a different set of tools for reducing uncertainty. Gibbs, Ellison and Lai report that individuals on online dating websites attempt to reduce uncertainty at three levels: personal security, misrepresentation, and recognition. The asynchronous nature of the communications and the added privacy concerns may make people want to engage in interactive behaviors and seek confirmatory information sooner than those who engage in offline dating.

Social media has become an indispensable part of our daily lives. In this new media era, a lot of communications has moved from offline to online. In online communication, people still face so many uncertainties, which motivate them to reduce uncertainty. There are a lot of scholars studying the uncertainty reduction in the social media platforms. Cynthia Palmieri, Kristen Prestano, Rosalie Gandley, Emily Overton and Qin Zhang investigated the effects of self disclosure on Facebook on perceived uncertainty reduction. The findings revealed the levels of self disclosure on an individual's Facebook Page affect perceived uncertainty about that individual. Stephanie Tom Tong discussed information seeking behaviors during the stages of relationship termination. Relational dissolution is a socially embedded activity, and affordances of social network sites offer many advantages in reducing uncertainty after a breakup. A survey collected responses from those who use Facebook to gather information about their romantic ex partners.

Long distance romantic relationships may be tough for all involved for numerous different reasons. Due to the lack of seeing a partner face to face regularly, it is of no surprise that uncertainty may build up in long distance relationships. Uncertainty may lead to undesirable relational outcomes and certainty can also be problematic in long distance romantic relationships if there is certainty that a situation will end in an undesirable outcome. According to Katherine C. Maguire, when uncertainty reduction leads to a negative predicted outcome, it is then that the relationship will end. While it is true that certainty may lead to an undesirable relational outcome, research shows that engaging in uncertainty reduction strategies over long distance romantic relationships is beneficial for the relationship at large. In Brashers' study on uncertainty management's application to health communication, he explains the uncertainty of self perception that people's feeling of uncertain is not necessarily correspond to its self assessment of available knowledge. Their study questions the assumption that increased knowledge of other people and relationships will help social actors to function effectively in the social world. MRU suggests that different levels of motivation to reduce uncertainty can lead to certain communication behaviors depending on competing goals. minimizing those costs with limited effort may be preferable to information seeking. Gudykunst's anxiety/uncertainty management theory (AUM) also differs from Berger's uncertainty reduction theory in several significant ways. First, AUM asserts that people do not always try to reduce uncertainty. When uncertainty allows people to maintain positive predicted outcome values, they may choose to manage their information intake such that they balance their level of uncertainty. Second, AUM claims that people experience uncertainty differently in different situations. People must evaluate whether a particular instance of uncertainty is stressful, and if so, what resources are available. Gudykunst also points out that uncertainty reduction theory was formulated to describe the actions and behaviors of middle class, white strangers in the United States. This is the demographic in the studies Berger and Calabrese used to develop the theory.

Hurley, Kosenko and Brashers argue that 65% of internet based cancer news is associated with the increase of uncertainty. In order of their degree of magnitude, information regarding treatment, prevention, detection, survivorship, and end of life issues yielded the most uncertainty. Given the inverse relationship between information seeking behavior and uncertainty reduction, Hurley, Kosenko and Brashers assert that uncertainty management theory may be more accurate and effective than uncertainty reduction theory. More research is needed to determine what computer mediated communications exacerbate and help individuals manage their uncertainty regarding their health.

Uncertainty reduction theory has its history of being applicable to Western cultures, especially the United States, but there is not much research proving its usefulness in other cultures. Riley Beard, in her critique of uncertainty reduction theory, claims that it disregards other ways of reducing uncertainty that may be prevalent in other cultures.

As stated above, uncertainty reduction theory was originated to fit a context of initial, face to face interactions in Western cultures. The history of URT being applicable in first time face to face interactions is valid, but there is little research that shows uncertainty reduction theory is applicable in many contexts other than the one that the theory is rooted in.