September 2019, ScientificAmerican.com 87experience an overwhelming need for identity—and not
just any identities but ones that are well equipped to re-
solve those disorienting, even scary, feelings.REDUCING UNCERTAINTY
THROUGH GROUP MEMBERSHIP
SOME FEATURES of groups and social identities are espe-
cially well suited to reducing self-uncertainty. Most
important, groups need to be polarized from other
groups and have unambiguous boundaries that dis-
tinguish between those who are “in” and those who
are “out.” Internally they need to be clearly structured,
typically in a hierarchical way. These features make
the group cohesive and homogeneous, such that mem-
bers are interdependent and of one mind in sharing a
common fate.
Diversity and dissent reinstate uncertainty and are
therefore avoided. When these facets do occur, individ-
uals and the group as a whole react decisively and
harshly, creating an atmosphere of suspicion that lays
the ground for persecution of alleged deviants. It
breeds an opportunity for personal dislikes and vendet-
tas to escalate under the guise of protecting cohesion.
That members are accepted and trusted fully is im-
portant not only for the group but also for the mem-
bers themselves. After all, they desperately want to be
included so that their identity is validated and their
uncertainty thus reduced. Prospective and new mem-
bers—and those who suspect they are viewed with sus-
picion or are uncertain about whether they are fully
accepted—will go to extremes on behalf of the group to
prove their membership credentials and loyalty. These
individuals are vulnerable to zealotry and radicaliza-
tion. Neo-Nazis and white supremacists who publicly
engage in violent acts of terrorism and racial hatred
are one example of this extremism.
The social identity embodied by such groups also
needs to be uncomplicated so that it can be taken at
face value as “the truth.” Subtlety and nuance are
anathema because they are an impediment to uncer-
tainty reduction. Clarity on where the group stands al-
lows its members to know how they should think and
feel—as well as behave. Such identities are bolstered
by having a strong ideology that identifies distasteful
and morally bankrupt out-groups who can be demon-
ized and cast in the role of “enemy.” Conspiracy theo-
ries thrive in this environment because they establish
these out-groups as agents of historical victimization
by the in-group.HOW UNCERTAINTY BREEDS POPULISM
IF SELF-UNCERTAINTY motivates people to identify with a
group and internalize that identity as a key part of
who they are, they need to be confident that they know
exactly what the group’s identity is. When you need
what you consider to be reliable and trusted sources of
identity information, where do you turn? The first port
of call are those who you believe are consensually
viewed by the group to be its leadership—typically it is
a person whose leadership position is also formalized.
Recent research on how self-uncertainty affects the
type of leaders that individuals prefer paints a poten-
tially alarming picture. People just need someone to tell
them what to do—and ideally those directives are com-
ing from someone whom they can trust as “one of us.”
Self-uncertain people have also been shown to prefer
leaders who are assertive and authoritarian, even auto-
cratic, and who deliver a simple, black-and-white, affir-
mational message about “who we are” rather than a
more open, nuanced and textured identity message.
Perhaps most troubling is that self-uncertainty can
enable and build support for leaders who possess the
so-called Dark Triad personality attributes: Machiavel-
lianism, narcissism and psychopathy. Self-uncertainty,
in other words, seems to fuel populism.
Another source of identity information is “people like
you” who you feel embody the group’s identity and see
the world in the same way as you do. These can be peo-
ple with whom you interact face-to-face or as friends or
sources of information such as radio and television
channels, particularly news outlets, that you watch. But
nowadays these sources are overwhelmingly informa-
tion and influence nodes on the Internet, such as Web
sites, social media, Twitter feeds, podcasts, and so forth.
The Web is an ideal place to decrease the discom-
fort of self-uncertainty because it provides nonstop
access to unlimited information that is often cherry-
picked by individuals themselves and algorithms that
do it discreetly. Therefore, people are only accessing
identity-confirming information. Confirmation bias, a
powerful and universal human bias that is especially
strong under uncertainty, separates information and
identity universes that fragment and polarize society.
Online, people can easily seek out groups that may not
be readily available in their physical lives.
The Internet further empowers confirmation bias
under uncertainty because people want to be sur-
rounded by those who think alike so that their identi-
ties and worldview are continuously confirmed. The
contours of “truth” then map onto these self-contained
social-identity universes. In this scenario, there are no
absolute truths and no motivation to seriously explore
and incorporate alternative viewpoints because that
would be kryptonite to social identity’s power to re-
duce self-uncertainty. This dynamic helps to explain
why people dwell in increasingly homogeneous echo
chambers that confirm their identity.MORE TO EXPLORE
ce ai I e i heo . Michael A. Hogg in Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology, Vol. 2.
Edited by Paul A. M. Van Lange, Arie W. Kruglanski and E. Tor y Higgins. Sage Public ations, 2012.
o ce ai o E e i ocial Ca ego i a io a I e i oce e . Michael A. Hogg
in Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol. 23, No. 5, pages 338–342; October 2014.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
he i ali o h. Matthew Fisher, Joshua Knobe, Brent Strickland and Frank C. Keil; Februar y 2018.
scientificamerican.com/magazine/sa