Causal uncertainty and metacognitive inferences about goal attainment

Causal uncertainty during initial interactions

“…Currently, all of the research demonstrating that causally uncertain people engage in more effortful processing has been limited to the realm of social cognition (e.g., Jacobson et al, ; Tobin & Weary, ; Weary et al, ; Weary et al, ). In these studies, participants are typically in an isolated room and instructed to process information that is presented to them on a computer screen.…”

“…One strategy is to reduce the discrepancy between their actual and desired knowledge states (i.e., adopt an accuracy goal ), prompting a more extensive search for and processing of social information. For example, causally uncertain people persist longer during social information processing tasks (Jacobson, Weary, & Lin, ), rely less on heuristic processing when making social judgments (Weary, Jacobson, Edwards, & Tobin, ), and are more likely to scrutinize causal arguments (Tobin & Weary, ) and to incorporate important situational information into dispositional attributions (Weary, Vaughn, Stewart, & Edwards, ). However, as previously mentioned, these studies have involved only hypothetical situations, and thus, it is unclear how such CU processes apply in real‐time social interactions.…”

“…Although both of these constructs involve effortful processing of social information, they are negatively correlated (Tobin, ), and the effortful processing is motivated by different goals. Whereas attributionally complex people are intrinsically interested in understanding causes of others' behavior (Fletcher, Danilovics, Fernandez, Peterson, & Reefer, ), causally uncertain people do not enjoy thinking about causes of events and only do so in an effort to reduce the cognitive and emotional discomfort associated with their heightened uncertainty (Jacobson et al, ; Weary & Edwards, ). Thus, for attributionally complex people, effortful processing is more proactive, but for causally uncertain people, the same behavior is more reactive.…”

Psychological Effects of Uncertainty

“…Kagan'dan (1972) başlayarak farklı araştırmacılar belirsizlik yönetiminin ya da belirsizliği azaltma ihtiyacının temel bir motivasyon olduğundan bahsetmektedir (ör., Hogg ve Abrams, 1993;Hofstede, 2001;Van den Bos, 2007;Van den Bos, 2009). Belirsizliğin tahmin edilemeyen, kontrol edilemeyen ve tehlikeli yapısından dolayı insanlar hayatta kalabilmek (Berlyne, 1962;Van den Bos, 2009) ve hedeflerini gerçekleştirebilmek (Jacobson, Weary ve Lin, 2008) için belirsizlikleri azaltma ihtiyacı duymaktadırlar. Günlük hayatta en basit işleri gerçekleştirirken bile belirliliklere (varsayımlara) ihtiyacımız vardır.…”

Uncertainty Threat Can Cause Stereotyping

“…For instance, a person who is uncertain and attempting to reach a decision might continue to deliberate past the point where other people would be satisfied. Indeed, research shows that both chronically accessible and situationally activated uncertainty can cause such effects (Jacobson, Weary, & Lin, 2008). Additional research demonstrates that uncertainty can reduce participants’ use of social category information, and thus reduce stereotyping, when they make judgments about others (Weary, Jacobson, Edwards, & Tobin, 2001).…”