Why are we, as human beings, so determined to decrease uncertainty about new acquaintances? For instance, someone entering a college setting and knowing that they will all of a sudden have another human being to live with in close quarters illustrates this theory of uncertainty reduction. In addition to natural curiosity, Charles Berger believes that it is also natural to have doubts about the ability to predict the outcome of preliminary relations. This is attributed to the fact that the ability to predict and uncertainty share an inverse relationship. That is to say, as a person's ability to predict decreases, that person's uncertainty increases and vice versa. Berger's uncertainty reduction theory focuses on how human communication is used to gain knowledge and create understanding, specifically in reference to first encounters. This theory assumes that when strangers meet, their primary concern is one of uncertainty reduction for the purpose of increasing predictability about the behavior of both themselves and others while interacting (Griffin, 2003, p.142).
According to the uncertainty reduction theory, when approaching an initial encounter, it is only natural to have a drive to predict and explain. In conformity with Fritz Heider's beliefs, we as human beings naturally tend to draw constant inferences about why people do the things that they do (Griffin, 2003, p.143). Similarly, we have an initial desire to compile information for the purpose, as aforementioned, of gaining knowledge and creating understanding. Correspondingly, applied to the roommate example, this simply means that someone entering a dormitory situation, where they will have a roommate, will have a drive to get to know their new roommate and, essentially, their roommate's likes and dislikes in order to predict how their new roommate may or may not behave in future situations and explain why their roommate may or may not behave in that particular manner.
