Resolving uncertainty in a social world

ABSTRACT Consider the range of social behaviours we engage in every day. In each case, there are a multitude of unknowns, reflecting the many sources of uncertainty inherent to social

inference. We describe how uncertainty manifests in social environments (the thoughts and intentions of others are largely hidden, making it difficult to predict a person’s behaviour) and

why people are motivated to reduce the aversive feelings generated by uncertainty. We propose a three-part model whereby social uncertainty is initially reduced through automatic modes of

inference (such as impression formation) before more control-demanding modes of inference (such as perspective-taking) are deployed to narrow one’s predictions even more. Finally, social

uncertainty is attenuated further through learning processes that update these predictions based on new information. Our framework integrates research across fields to offer an account of

the mechanisms motivating social cognition and action, laying the groundwork for future experiments that can illuminate the impact of uncertainty on social cognition. Access through your

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EARLIER SOCIAL INFORMATION HAS A STRONGER INFLUENCE ON JUDGMENTS Article Open access 02 January 2024 UNDERSTANDING LEARNING THROUGH UNCERTAINTY AND BIAS Article Open access 13 February 2025

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B. _Psychol. Bull._ 118, 315–327 (1995). Google Scholar  Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank C. Dean Wolf for creation of the figures and thank M. Frank and D. Tamir for helpful

comments on early drafts. This research was supported by a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence grant (P20GM103645) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to O.F.H. and

A.S. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA Oriel FeldmanHall & Amitai

Shenhav Authors * Oriel FeldmanHall View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Amitai Shenhav View author publications You can also search for

this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Oriel FeldmanHall. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. ADDITIONAL

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permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE FeldmanHall, O., Shenhav, A. Resolving uncertainty in a social world. _Nat Hum Behav_ 3, 426–435 (2019).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0590-x Download citation * Received: 13 August 2018 * Accepted: 15 March 2019 * Published: 22 April 2019 * Issue Date: May 2019 * DOI:

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