137).
Berger says that there are two different kinds of uncertainty that a person may face when they encounter their first meeting with someone. Because not everyone is 100% sure on how they should act, one kind of uncertainty seals with behavioral questions, which are questions that are used to ease the stress that behavioral uncertainty can cause. The second kind concentrates on cognitive questions, which are focused on discovering who the other person is as an individual (Griffin, 1991, p.137). Some assumptions of URT are as follows; all social interaction is goal driven, uncertainty is central to all social interaction, interpersonal communication reduces uncertainty and it is possible to predict people's behavior (Garard, 2001). .
The uncertainty reduction theory is one that is based on a series of axioms. Axioms are self evident truths that require no additional proof. Berger's eight truths that about initial uncertainty are based on: verbal output, non-verbal warmth, information seeking, self-disclosure, reciprocity, similarity, liking, and shared networks (Griffin, 1991, p.137). Once the validity of the eight axioms was granted, pairs of them were put together to produce more insight into relational dynamics. All together, the axiom pairs generate 28 different theorems (Griffin, 19991, p.140-41). Berger mentions three strategies we can use to reduce uncertainty; the passive strategy, which is to simply observe the other person, the active strategy is when a third party is asked for information and the interactive strategy, which is face-to-face self disclosure (Garard, 2001). Critique of this theory mainly includes doubts about theorem 17, which predicts that the more you like people, the less you"ll seek information about them. Even though some aspects of Berger's theory may be questionable, URT is praised for its originality and also for its major contribution to communication scholarship (Griffin, 1991, p.