ABSTRACT
Ambiguity tolerance refers to an individual’s willingness to accommodate or adapt to encounters with ambiguous situations or ideas (Ausburn & Ausburn, 1978). Ambiguous situations develop from novel circumstances that have no familiar cues, complex situations with many cues to be considered, contradictory situations where different elements or cues suggest different structures (Budner, 1962), or unstructured situations containing cues that cannot be interpreted (Norton, 1975). For instance, travel to a foreign country produces many ambiguous situations that are novel, confusing, and demanding. Individuals differ in their their abilities to adapt to these strange situations.
