motivated aversive uncertainty management

Uncertainty can be uncomfortable, especially when someone is uncertain about themselves. Uncertainty identity theory (UIT) contends that uncertainty is aversive and a foundational motivator of group identification and subsequent group behavior. Despite the central importance of self-uncertainty within UIT, the aversive nature of self-uncertainty has received little attention. Incorporating anxious responses within UIT could help explain why and how people are motivated to identify with groups as a method to reduce uncertainty. My project tests the novel hypothesis that although heightened anxiety can enhance self-uncertainty’s aversive effects, self-uncertainty is a sufficiently aversive construct that can motivate self-categorization to reduce self-uncertainty even in a minimal anxiety context. The current research used a 2(high self-uncertainty/low self-uncertainty) x 2(high anxiety/low anxiety worried) factorial design with trait anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, and need for cognitive closure as covariates to test interaction effects between anxiety and self-uncertainty on three outcomes: state anxiety, state self-uncertainty, and social identification. Results showed that high self-uncertainty increased state anxiety levels even in a reduced anxiety context, high anxiety did exacerbate self-uncertainty’s effects, and high anxiety was not sufficient to elevate self-uncertainty or social identification in a low self-uncertainty context. Furthermore, anxiety moderated self-uncertainty’s indirect effect on social identification, such that high self-uncertainty participants in the high anxiety condition reported more self-uncertainty then subsequently identified more strongly with a salient group. In summary, this project determined how self-uncertainty and anxiety interact to motivate social identification and influence behaviors to reduce both anxiety and self-uncertainty.