A Study on the Uncertainty Reduction Theory and the Evolutionary Process of the Human Brain

A Study on the Uncertainty Reduction Theory and the Evolutionary Process of the Human Brain Humans brains have evolved to see patterns. The Uncertainty Reduction Theory states that people tend to gather information about people to reduce uncertainty about them. This uncertainty is common not only when meeting other people for the first time, but it is present in all types of new situations. It is essential to our survival to constantly assess the environment and threats, whether they are real or perceived. Uncertainty Reduction Theory gives us a guideline on how and why we react to new situations. The Uncertainty Reduction Theory can be linked to our evolutionary past in which we had to assess the threat level of potential predators and detect their presence. â€Å"Heider’s notion that man seeks to â€Å"make sense â€Å"out of events he perceives in his environment,† is reminiscent of Neil deGrasse Tyson explaining why human brains tend to create patterns (Craig and Muller, 2007, p. 327). The reasoning was that our ancestors who were constantly under threat of predators would sometimes face situations in which there may or may not be a predator in that bush or high grass. If you look up at a tree, your brain naturally creates patterns among the leaves and branches where you may visualize some type of shape that may look like a lion, a person’s face, or a triangle. In the physical reality, there is no lion, that’s just the way the tree is shaped, or there actually is a lion there. Those that created patterns and visualized the lion whether a preda tor was there or not, ran away and survived. Those that didn’t create the patterns would have either survived(if there was nothing there) or have been killed(if there actually was a lion). In a type of Pascal’s wager, those that evolved brains to create patterns and in turn, took no chances on their livelihood survived. This same evolutionary pressure to â€Å"make sense† or create patterns of environmental stimuli to assess threat level can be adapted to interpersonal communication among individuals of a species. Humans can communicate verbally through language and that would be the ideal way to detect the threat level of an individual or group after assessing body language. Finding certainty in the uncertainty of whether there’s a lion in the bushes or whether a person is a potential friend or foe is essential to survival and interpersonal communicative behaviors is the medium in which uncertainty can be converted to certainty. Survival relies on awareness and our consistent surveying ability. It is optimal behavior to gather as much information as possible when new people or situations arise. Gathering information is crucial to making ideal decisions. Decision making becomes easier when you have as much information as possible.