Psychology

Uncertainty-Reducing Behavior: What It Is and How To Deal With It The “Right” Way

Seeing reality from a different perspective

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Uncertainty-reducing behavior is omnipresent, yet not many people exhibit the “right” kind of behavior.

I want to propose a very basic, simple, and unifying way of looking at behavior and psychology.

Simply said, every behavior we show either increases or reduces uncertainty. Or if you prefer the other way around: reduces or increases certainty.

First of all, what can we regard as “uncertainty”?

What is “uncertainty”?

Uncertainty can be explained in many ways, but I prefer these two definitions:

1. Uncertainty means an increase of local entropy
2. Uncertainty means getting further away from your goal, or at least, experience that feeling

For practicability and simplicity issues, we will go for the second definition.

Uncertainty can be caused and experienced both in the long-term and short-term. We will first discuss short-term uncertainty as well as its differences with long-term uncertainty.

Defining short-term uncertainty…