Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

The Uncertainty Principle

The Uncertainty Principle

Werner Heisenberg considered the limits of how accurately one can measure properties of an electron or other microscopic particles. He determined that there is a fundamental limit to how accurately one can measure both a particle’s position and its momentum simultaneously. The more accurate the measurement of the momentum of a particle is known, the less accurate the position at that time is known and vice versa. This is what is now called the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. He...

Social Traps

Social traps are negative situations where people get caught in a direction or relationship that later proves to be unpleasant, with no easy way to back out of or avoid. The concept was orignally introduced by John Platt who applied psychology to Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons", where in New England herd owners could let their cattle graze in the common ground. This situation seems like a good idea, but an individual could have an advantage. If they owned...

Uncertainty in Measurement: Reading Instruments

Uncertainty in Measurement: Reading Instruments

Counting is the type of measurement that is free from uncertainty, provided the number of objects being counted does not change during the process. Such measurements result in exact numbers. By counting the eggs in a carton, for instance, one can determine exactly how many eggs are there in the carton. Similarly, the numbers of defined quantities are also exact. For example, 1 foot is exactly 12 inches, 1 inch is exactly 2.54 centimeters, and 1 gram is exactly 0.001 kilograms. Quantities...

Social Proof

Social proof is a form of persuasion based on comparison and conformity. People compare their behavior and actions to what others are doing and will change to conform to do what their peers do.

Uncertainty: Overview

Uncertainty: Overview

In analytical chemistry, we often perform repetitive measurements to detect and minimize inaccuracies caused by both determinate and indeterminate errors. Despite the cares we take, the presence of random errors means that repeated measurements almost never have exactly the same magnitude. The collective difference between these measurements - observed values - and the estimated or expected value is called uncertainty. Uncertainty is conventionally written after the estimated or expected value.

Social Scripts

People tend to know what behavior is expected of them in specific, familiar settings. A script is a person’s knowledge about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting (Schank & Abelson, 1977). Essentially, scripts are a particular kind of schema, one containing default values for the features within an event. In the restaurant example, the script's features include the props (e.g., tables, menu, food, and money), the roles to be played (e.g., customer and waiter),...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Affective valence as a computational signal for learning value.

Communications psychology·2026

Same author

Medial temporal lobe encodes cognitive maps of real-world social networks.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same author

A novel approach-avoidance task to study decision making under outcome uncertainty.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026

Same author

Publisher Correction: Misspecified models create the appearance of adaptive control during value-based choice.

Communications psychology·2026

Same author

The emotional cost of political engagement.

Emotion (Washington, D.C.)·2026

Same author

Rejection-based choices discourage people from opting out of voting.

Nature communications·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Experimental Research Examining How People Can Cope with Uncertainty Through Soft Haptic Sensations

Experimental Research Examining How People Can Cope with Uncertainty Through Soft Haptic Sensations

Published on: September 16, 2015

Resolving uncertainty in a social world.

Oriel FeldmanHall¹, Amitai Shenhav²

¹Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Oriel.feldmanhall@brown.edu.

Nature Human Behaviour

|April 24, 2019

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

People reduce social uncertainty through automatic impression formation, effortful perspective-taking, and learning from new information. This process helps manage the inherent unknowns in social inference and guides social cognition.

More Related Videos

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test

Published on: November 19, 2015

Split Point Analysis and Uncertainty Quantification of Thermal-Optical Organic/Elemental Carbon Measurements

Split Point Analysis and Uncertainty Quantification of Thermal-Optical Organic/Elemental Carbon Measurements

Published on: September 7, 2019

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Experimental Research Examining How People Can Cope with Uncertainty Through Soft Haptic Sensations

Experimental Research Examining How People Can Cope with Uncertainty Through Soft Haptic Sensations

Published on: September 16, 2015

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test

Published on: November 19, 2015

Split Point Analysis and Uncertainty Quantification of Thermal-Optical Organic/Elemental Carbon Measurements

Split Point Analysis and Uncertainty Quantification of Thermal-Optical Organic/Elemental Carbon Measurements

Published on: September 7, 2019

Area of Science:

Social Psychology
Cognitive Science
Behavioral Economics

Background:

Social interactions involve inherent uncertainty due to hidden intentions and unpredictable behaviors.
This uncertainty can generate aversive feelings, motivating individuals to reduce it.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose a comprehensive model of how individuals reduce social uncertainty.
To integrate research from multiple fields on the mechanisms of social cognition and action.

Main Methods:

Conceptual framework integrating existing research.
Describes a three-part model of uncertainty reduction: automatic inference, controlled inference, and learning.

Main Results:

Social uncertainty is sequentially reduced via impression formation, perspective-taking, and adaptive learning.
This multi-stage process helps refine predictions about others' behavior.

Conclusions:

The proposed model offers a unified account of social uncertainty reduction.
Highlights the interplay between automatic and controlled processes in social cognition and action.
Provides a foundation for future experimental research on uncertainty's impact.