Shocking! Uncertainty is More Stressful Than Certainty, Even When The Certainty Is Negative and the Uncertainty is Potentially Positive!

I was driving out to Indian Head to see my mom on Sunday and came across some guy named Kyle Buchanan on talk radio.

He was talking with a psychologist about an experiment that had a surprising result – stress levels were higher in a group that had a 50-50 chance of getting a painful electric shock than in a group that knew they had a 100% chance of getting that painful shock.

This may seem counter-intuitive as one group has a 50% chance of a good outcome and a 50% chance of a bad outcome while the other group is 100% certain of a bad outcome.

But it illustrates something deep-wired into the human brain – we have evolved to prefer certainty, even if we know the result will be negative rather than not knowing.

If we know something will be negative, we can prepare or accept or pray or go out of body or whatever. But the uncertainty, and especially the longer it lasts, actually makes us more anxious.

With that said, stress also has benefits – people who are most stressed in times of uncertainty are often the best at choosing the correct course of action.

Head Tale