Uncertainty Management Theory explains how the meaning of an unknown shapes information seeking, avoidance, and reappraisal. Information can reduce, increase, or leave uncertainty unresolved while changing its significance. The theory recognizes hope and threat without authorizing deceptive reassurance or withholding material facts.
- FamilyModel
- CategoryTheories & Explanatory Models
- DomainRisk, Crisis & Safety
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.