Uncertainty management

Uncertainty management has long been prominent in the field of interpersonal communication as a process central to dyadic interaction. Our goal in this chapter is to explicate cutting-edge theories of uncertainty management within interpersonal communication scholarship. Accordingly, we review six theories that headline the study of message production an message processing under conditions of uncertainty: (a) uncertainty reduction theory, (b) predicted outcome value theory,(c) problematic integration theory, (d) uncertainty management theory, (e) the relational turbulence model, and (f) the theory of motivated information management. We describe each theory’s signature tenets, constructs, and empirical results. We conclude by evaluating the literature and identifying directions for future work.