Harden Elkington
People experienced less stress when anticipating a pre-determined electric shock than a random one, according to an experiment in psychology.
In the real world, researchers could only warn that a bigger, speedier version was on its way at some point. But we can educate our brains and weary as they are, they can become better at managing this unpredictable environment.
To begin, this sort of situation – the unexpected danger – is when the brain truly works.
Michel Dugas, a researcher at Université du Québec en Outaouais, refers to the brain’s smoke alarm during such moments. “There might be a fire or perhaps the toast is burnt,” he explains, “but until it’s certain that the fire is here or that the toast is indeed burnt, you won’t act.”
Humans have a negativity bias, which is the tendency to give more weight to bad news than good. This makes evolutionary sense; while the good news is seldom harmful, the bad news is sometimes fatal.
Why do we hate uncertainty?
In a study from 2011, researchers found that it’s because we have an obsessive need to reduce our feeling of uncertainty at all costs.
In fact, those who couldn’t find any certainty in the tasks they were given experienced greater stress than those instructed to expect a mild electric shock.
They reasoned that not knowing what’s going to come next can lead to feelings of helplessness and ultimately depression.
This explains why we crave so much certainty when it comes to our careers, love lives or even the weather in Thailand in a month’s time.
We’re in constant worry that something bad might happen in any of these areas. So when something unpredictable does happen, it makes us stressed because we weren’t ready for it.
When confronted with this unknown feeling, our brains respond in much the same way as they would if we were to come face-to-face with a bear: by activating the sympathetic nervous system.
This is the brain’s stress system, which controls the fight-or-flight response – a physiological reaction that prepares the body to either stay and deals with a threat or run away as quickly as possible.
In those two options, there is no uncertainty. You either defend yourself from something or you run away from it.
What causes uncertainty?
Uncertainty itself is a lack of information.
When you don’t know something, it’s hard to predict what might happen next and that makes us uneasy.
It could be about anything: an unknown street or neighborhood, an unelected candidate who wins the election, a disease without any cure… “Anything where we feel powerless,” says Dugas.
However, not all uncertainty is created equal. According to Amir Erez who lead the aforementioned study, there are three types of uncertainties:
- Controllable
- Uncontrollable
- Indeterminate.
Controllable uncertainty refers to an event that you don’t know when will happen but you have some control over it. For example, trying to unlock a jammed door or fighting against someone’s attack (so that you know how to defend yourself).
Uncontrollable uncertainty is about an event that something random could happen but you have no control over it. It relates to the heart getting lucky at roulette, for instance.
Finally, indeterminate uncertainty is about an event that you can’t tell if something will happen or not. This is because the probability of it happening is equally high as it not happening.
“We feel uncomfortable with all three types,” says Erez, “but the stress related to them differs.”
The study found that people are more stressed out by uncontrollable uncertainty, as it relates to the need for self-efficacy.
We believe we have some control over our lives and when something happens that proves us wrong, our stress levels increase.
When a major earthquake hits a city, for example, people typically drop everything they’re doing and run out with no thought of their next move.
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How does the brain deal with uncertainty?
So, how can we cope with our brains that don’t like this type of situation? Well, the first thing to do is to think about your brain as a muscle.
“Your brain is flexible and it changes as you use it,” says Tom Stafford, author of Mind Hacks: Tips and Tricks for Using Your Brain. “This is why you need to train it, and not just let your brain wander around as it pleases.
So, the first thing that you should do is to look for situations where you feel uncertain and then seek those out.
The reason for this is that by repeatedly exposing yourself to such stressors, your brain can learn to deal with them better.
When you do this, don’t try to change the feeling of uncertainty itself; just do whatever you were going to do when confronted by that uncertain situation. The key is just to never avoid such situations.
By doing so, your brain can add another layer of certainty and reduce that anxious or stressed feeling.
Here, the brain might activate the parasympathetic nervous system – or our body’s calming response. “Your heart rate drops, your blood pressure falls and you relax,” explains Stafford.
He adds that in order to deal with uncertainty in this way, it’s not enough just to wait for the situation where you feel uncertain, as that’s likely to be the same situation where you’re stressed.
Instead, you need to actively seek out those situations and expose yourself to them. “If you want your brain not to over-react when confronted with a bear in the woods,” he says, “you better take it for a walk through the woods regularly.”
Conclusion
It’s one thing to make plans and know what you’re going to do next, but it’s another to have no idea where your life is heading.
However, if you go through this process of exposing yourself to more uncertain situations – even though that makes you feel uneasy at first – then over time, the brain will become desensitized to the stressor.
Erez agrees with Stafford, stating that in order for this strategy to work, you should try to look at your future in a positive way. This is because by expecting something terrible to happen, you are actually creating it yourself.
“If you go out searching for things that might be dangerous,” says Erez, “there’s a good chance you’ll find them.”
