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Emotion Regulation
Here’s How Uncertainty Can Empower You
New research examines the potential benefits of uncertainty.
Updated January 28, 2025 Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
Key points
- Uncertainty (i.e., not knowing the outcome of events) often causes stress and anxiety.
- Uncertainty can be beneficial: It focuses attention, heightens learning, and serves as a distraction.
- Uncertainty also increases enjoyment of entertainment and may boost positive emotions.
Uncertainty is a psychological state referring to a lack of knowledge about current events or future possibilities.
Here are a few examples:
- One may feel uncertain about having chosen the right college major (e.g., in terms of job opportunities).
- A divorced person may be uncertain about ever getting together with an ex or the likelihood of a new romantic relationship leading to marriage.
- A recently diagnosed patient may not be sure how a disease will progress or whether a novel treatment will be effective.
As these examples illustrate, a large number of outcomes involving one’s safety, family, romantic relationship, health, job, and financial security are uncertain.
In a recent paper, Alquist and Baumeister argue that there are circumstances in which uncertainty may be beneficial, even boosting happiness and well-being.
They discuss situations in which uncertainty increases entertainment enjoyment, serves as an effective distraction, and positively affects attention, effort, learning, and emotional experience. These are reviewed below.
Intolerance of uncertainty
We crave certainty. This is especially true for people with a high intolerance of uncertainty, which refers to difficulties enduring the uncomfortable emotions triggered by a lack of certainty.
People with intolerance of uncertainty are more likely to experience mental illness—depression, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and eating disorders.
Individuals who can tolerate uncertainty, in contrast, tend to be happier and have better mental health.
So, how can one become more accepting of uncertainty? One approach involves learning about the benefits of uncertainty.
6 benefits of uncertainty
1. Attention and 2. Learning: We often pay more attention to what is new, unfamiliar, and uncertain. Therefore, uncertainty heightens attention, which then facilitates learning, perhaps through increased physiological arousal.
3. Distraction: By capturing attention, uncertainty can also serve as a distraction from unpleasant stimuli and a way of reducing negative emotions and increasing positive emotions. Reading thrillers and watching suspenseful movies, for instance, might be an effective way of taking one’s mind off problems.
4. Entertainment enjoyment: Uncertainty can increase the enjoyment of entertainment. That is one of the reasons watching live sports is more enjoyable than watching a taped game. The same can be said of reality TV shows vs. scripted TV shows.
5. Effort: Another benefit of uncertainty is increased effort, especially when the outcome has not been determined. That might explain why people try harder at the beginning of a romantic relationship to make things work than they do after they are finally married.
6. Intensity and duration of emotions (including positive emotions): Uncertainty has a positive effect on emotional intensity and duration. The increase in intensity is due to heightened attention and attempts at explaining and making sense of the uncertain situation. Naturally, heightened emotional intensity is beneficial when the original emotion is positive. For instance, receiving a gift from a secret admirer may be experienced as even more pleasurable than getting a gift from someone we know.
Takeaway
Uncertainty is a psychological state of not knowing the truth of present or future outcomes. This article has aimed to show that there are benefits to tolerating uncertainty—perhaps even accepting and embracing it.
Uncertainty can
- Heighten attention.
- Facilitate learning.
- Motivate effort.
- Serve as an effective distraction.
- Heighten enjoyment of entertainment.
- Increase emotional intensity/duration (especially desirable for positive emotions).
So, using these six strategies, you can leverage uncertainty to increase happiness and well-being for yourself and others you know well.
Here are a few examples:
Instead of quickly unwrapping a gift you have received, you can do so very slowly, thus intensifying and prolonging the sense of anticipation and excitement.
Commit to watching new movies and TV programs and reading new books. Though watching reruns can be comforting, they are less likely to be as stimulating or thrilling as something new.
Here is one final example, shared by a friend who leveraged uncertainty to increase effort in his relationship:
After learning of an old coworker’s divorce, my friend had the realization that he had been taking his lovely wife for granted. My friend reflected on this, and his solution was to try to recall the time he and his wife had just begun dating—when much was uncertain and he was unsure whether his feelings were reciprocated.
This increased not only my friend’s gratitude but also his willingness to invest in the relationship and keep it fresh. He suggested new date night ideas to his wife, such as going on pretend blind dates, which she told me she continues to enjoy very much.
In summary, uncertainty is not the enemy. Sure, certainty is good and comforting, even necessary, but uncertainty is the spice of life.
A life that lacks uncertainty is predictable and boring. It is one without surprise, adventure, and mystery, an existence without excitement and thrill.
So embrace uncertainty. And use it to your benefit.
