Uncertainty Orientation: Individual Differences in the Self-Inference Process

The last Ontario Symposium was on social influence (see Zanna, Olson, & Herman, 1986). At that symposium, we suggested that many of the contributors should consider individual differences, particularly individual differences in uncertainty orientation (cf. Sorrentino & Short, 1986), when constructing their theories. For example, presenters such as Shelley Chaiken, Alice Eagly, Russel Fazio, Richard Petty, and John Cacioppo were theorizing that as the content of the message becomes more personally or self-relevant, people move from more automatic forms of information processing to more controlled forms. That is, as the message becomes more relevant to the self, people will become less reliant on such heuristic devices as source expertise, attractiveness of the source, and sheer frequency of arguments, and more reliant on the actual content of the message in forming their opinions.