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This page is about the societal concept. For the similar concept that relates to individuals, see Ambiguity aversion.

In cross-cultural psychology, uncertainty avoidance is a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. It reflects the extent to which members of a society attempt to cope with anxiety by minimizing uncertainty. Uncertainty avoidance is one of five key qualities or dimensions measured by the researchers who developed the Hofstede model of cultural dimensions to quantify cultural differences across international lines and better understand why some ideas and business practices work better in some countries than in others.

The uncertainty avoidance dimension relates to the level individuals of a specific society are comfortable with uncertainty and the unknown. Countries displaying strong uncertainty avoidance index (UAI) believe and behave in a strict manner. Individuals belonging to those countries also avoid unconventional ways of thinking and behaving. Weak UAI societies display more ease in regards to uncertainty.

People in cultures with high uncertainty avoidance try to minimize the occurrence of unknown and unusual circumstances and to proceed with careful changes step by step by planning and by implementing rules, laws and regulations. In contrast, low uncertainty avoidance cultures accept and feel comfortable in unstructured situations or changeable environments and try to have as few rules as possible. People in these cultures tend to be more pragmatic and more tolerant of change.

Key concepts

High uncertainty avoidance

There are many ways to detect if someone has a high amount of uncertainty avoidance. Typically, the use of formality in interaction with others, dependence of formalized policies and procedures, apparent resistance of change, and intolerance of untraditional ways are all characteristics of high uncertainty avoidance.

Some of the highest uncertainty avoidance countries include Greece, Guatemala, and Portugal.

Low uncertainty avoidance

In contrast, people can also exhibit characteristics of low uncertainty avoidance. Unlike high UA, those with a low level use informality in interaction with others, they often rely on informal norms and behaviors in most matters. Also, they will show moderate resistance to change.

Some of the lowest uncertainty avoidance countries include the Jamaica, Denmark, and Singapore.

Risk

Uncertainty avoidance is commonly mistakenly associated with risk avoidance. However, UAI does not deal with risk avoidance. In fact, it deals with the habits and rituals in which a society feels comfortable practicing.

Applications

Business

David S. Baker and Kerry D. Carson performed a study to evaluate uncertainty avoidance among field sales personnel. They selected 155 subjects from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Their research pointed towards individuals using both attachment and avoidance to lower their uncertainty avoidance in the workplace. People who were high on uncertainty avoidance and those low on it behaved differently. Sales personnel who were low on uncertainty avoidance saw no need to attach with their team or adapt to their environment, but those high on it used both avoidance and attachment to deal with situations. Those who reported moderate levels of uncertainty avoidance preferred to use adaptation rather than attachment when needed.

In a study conducted by Nelson O. Ndubisi, Naresh K. Malhotra , Dilber Ulas, and Gibson C. Ndubisi it was found that customer loyalty is less in countries with low uncertainty avoidance. Additionally, it can be inferred from the study that customer trust is higher in countries with high uncertainty avoidance.

Politics

In politics, cultures with high uncertainty avoidance citizens tend to have low interest in politics and citizen protests are repressed. This is because political unrest would bring about changes which the majority would not be comfortable with. There also tends to be many laws with laws being more specific as to avoid any uncertainty in the interpretation and to guide which behavior is acceptable. On the other side of the spectrum in cultures with low uncertainty avoidance citizens tend to be very interested in politics as it serves as a tool for change. Protests are accepted as another tool for change and laws are general.

Crime

In 2005 Robert M. Wiedenhaefer conducted a study on the factors contributing to terrorism. Wiedenhaefer concluded that uncertainty avoidance has a high association with terrorism. He asserted through his analysis he found that uncertainty avoidance is the strongest predictor in such crimes.

Ellen Giebels, Miriam Oostinga, Paul Taylor, and Joanna Curtis conducted a study in February 2017 on the impact between police-civilian interactions. They hypothesized that a clear and more communicative style of interaction would be used by high uncertainty avoidance negotiators. Their study went on to prove their hypothesis. In addition, they found that uncertainty avoidance highly influences interactions between said individuals.

Education

In cultures with high uncertainty avoidance, teachers are viewed as having all the answers and learning is structured. A lot of focus is emphasized on mathematics and science. In cultures with low uncertainty avoidance, teachers are not necessarily viewed as all knowing and the learning is open minded with less focus on facts.

Uncertainty avoidance also affects the family life, cultures with uncertainty avoidance tend to have rigid gender roles and cultures with low uncertainty avoidance have more flexible and more varied gender roles.

copied from Uncertainty Avoidance

Summary Plan

       My plan for the Uncertainty Avoidance Wikipedia article is mainly to change the language, add sources, remove broken links, and update some outdated information. I feel as if the article has strong bones but a few weak spots in areas such as addressed. My plan to bettering this article should not be hard to execute.
	My plan to bettering this article shall begin with changing the language. The first mistake from the previous author I noticed was the tone in the first paragraph. The author used both first and second person. Wikipedia requires a more neutral/formal tone. In order to fix this error, I will go into the paragraph and switch or delete the sentences that are throwing off the tone. It seems as if the improper tone is used only in the first paragraph and other than that the first paragraph is fairly stable and informative.
       In order to make the article more stable and informative I shall then focus on adding in missing sources. I noticed the author failed to add sources to the information added in the Related Research section. It so happens that during my search for additional sources I stumbled across the article the author had failed to cite. So, I shall enter that source in the references section and add an in-text citation in the paragraph that explains/summarizes said article.
       I will then move on to removing some outdated information and information without cited sources. For example, I am considering removing the high uncertainty avoidance subsection. I feel as if every piece of information provided should have an article, book, or webpage to back up the verifiability. Additionally, Wikipedia does not allow original thoughts to be published, so without a citation it is assumed to be an original thought or plagiarized. Although the author provided a link to where they found the information, it is outdated and no longer exists. I have looked all over the website which once held the information provided, but have had no luck in fining it. Thus, I will hunt in other places to find a source that states the information provided. If I still cannot find the information needed I will have to resort to removing it and finding other information to make up for it.
       Some more information I would like to add into the Wikipedia article to make up for some of the outdated info I will be removing incudes several academic articles I found in the ebsco database. I believe the information I found will be very beneficial to this article. One of the articles I found touches on how uncertainty avoidance impacts police-civilian interactions. I realize police brutality is a popular issue within America, so I feel as if this article has some useful and interesting information to add. Another article I found involves a study on the association of relationship quality with customer loyalty and how uncertainty avoidance plays a role in it. The authors/contributors used Turkey and Malaysia to conduct the study. The article states that cultures with high uncertainty avoidance will be more likely to stay loyal to a particular service provider, whereas cultures with low uncertainty avoidance are more willing and likely to change. 
       Additionally, I found an article on how uncertainty avoidance influences judgement and decision making. I believe this article with give a nice in-depth look to how uncertainty avoidance affects an individual. The article explains how uncertainty avoidance may define the differences in cognition and motivation in individuals. I also chose an article on a study that explores and examines the correlations between Hofstede’s power distance and uncertainty avoidance along with another article on a study conducted in Europe to recreate Hofstede’s uncertainty avoidance dimension. In my opinion, these two articles will add verifiability to the concept of uncertainty avoidance along with the Wikipedia article itself.
       In brief, I will be changing the tone, adding sources, removing broken links, updating outdated information, and adding new information into my Wikipedia article. I have about five articles from academic journals to add into the Wikipedia article. I believe by the end of the assignment I will have polished the article enough to where it will be useful and informative to other readers, as well as up to Wikipedia’s standards.