Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

6-2017

Abstract

This study attempts to isolate the effects of experiencing uncertainty on people's cognitive processes. I argue that people can believe that their actions affect the outcome (i.e. outcome control), but still face uncertainty regarding the extent to which actions will make a difference (i.e. impact uncertainty). To this end, I introduce a novel experimental paradigm which isolates the effects of impact uncertainty from outcome control. The findings revealed that after experiencing impact uncertainty, participants demonstrated greater causal complexity (i.e. more likely to make situational attributions and judge outcomes as having a “ripple effect”), but did not make fewer effort attributions for the outcomes. These findings demonstrate how the experience of impact uncertainty can affect cognitive processing, without compromising outcome control. Implications of these findings for developing more nuanced theories on control and uncertainty are discussed.

Keywords

Uncertainty, perceived control, causal complexity, attributions

Discipline

Cognition and Perception | Cognitive Psychology | Psychology

Research Areas

Psychology

Publication

International Journal of Psychology

Volume

52

Issue

3

First Page

256

Last Page

260

ISSN

0020-7594

Identifier

10.1002/ijop.12224

Publisher

Taylor & Francis (Routledge): STM, Behavioural Science and Public Health Titles / Wiley: 24 months

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12224

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