This web page has been created by Stephanie Anop, Matt Basinger, Kimberly Gates, and Kelly Conway as a project for Dr. Judith Lee's Fall,1998, InCo 234 Communication Theory Class. We hope to further your understanding of Charles Berger's Uncertainty Reduction Theory.
Charles Berger believes that it's natural to have doubts about our ability to predict the outcome of initial encounters. Berger, a professor of communication who is now at the University of California, Davis, notes that "the beginnings of personal relationships are fraught with uncertainties." Berger's uncertainty reduction theory focuses on how human communication is used to gain knowledge and create understanding.
Central to this theory is the assumption that when strangers meet, their primary concern is one of uncertainty reduction or increasing predictibility about the behavior of both themselves and others in the interaction.
Learn more about this theory...
This page was created by Matt Basinger and last modified on October 14, 1998.