title: Uncertainty as an anxiety cue at high and low levels of threat.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Intolerance of uncertainty and the overestimation of threat contribute to the maintenance of anxiety; however, the interaction between uncertainty and threat perception has not been examined empirically. The current study examined the extent to which explicitness of uncertainty is involved in perceptions of, and responses to, scenarios about threatening situations.
  
  
  METHODS
  A series of systematically varied scenarios were used to examine whether manipulating uncertainty (implicit vs. explicit) and threat level (high vs. low) altered the perception of a situation as anxiety-inducing. Undergraduate participants (n = 373) responded to vignettes about common situations (e.g., taking an elevator) with ratings of anxiety and desire to perform a safety behavior.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results revealed that higher threat situations, and those in which uncertainty was made explicit, provoked higher ratings of anxiety and urge to perform a safety behavior. In addition, explicit uncertainty significantly increased anxiety and urge to perform a safety behavior at low, but not at high, levels of threat.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Participants rated (via self-report) their hypothetical feelings as induced by vignettes, rather than actually experiencing these situations in vivo.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found evidence for "uncertainty-based reasoning," in which an individual perceives a situation as more anxiety-provoking (and is more likely to have the urge to perform a safety behavior) when the uncertain aspects of a situation are obvious or explicit, than when such uncertainty is merely implied or tacit. Implications for the understanding of "uncertainty-based reasoning" are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA.
authors.forename: Lillian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Reuman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA.
authors.forename: Ryan J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Jacoby
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA.
authors.forename: Laura E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Fabricant
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA.
authors.forename: Breanna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Herring
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA. Electronic address: jabramowitz@unc.edu.
authors.forename: Jonathan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Abramowitz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D003463:Cues; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anxiety; Intolerance of uncertainty; Threat perception; Uncertainty-based reasoning