ABSTRACT
HONEYCUTT points out that “a complete theory of uncertainty reduction in affiliation and attraction requires an understanding of the relationships among inputs, process, and the outcome of uncertainty reduction” (p. 467). I agree. And while reading Honeycutt’s essay, I became aware for the first time of how much my own and others’ work on uncertainty reduction has focused not on uncertainty reduction processes but instead on interaction processes. As can be discerned from Honeycutt’s analysis, the research work on uncertainty reduction has focused on pre-interaction expectancies, interaction structures, and interaction outcomes. In retrospect, it seems my own and others’ belief has been that if interaction processes are understood, then uncertainty reduction processes will be also. This belief seems to me now to have confused the study of how people come to know others with the study of how people interact with others.
