Disruption of Social Orders in Societal Transitions as Affective Control of Uncertainty

• Published in: The American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills) Vol. 67; no. 2; pp. 311 - 331
• Main Authors: Hoey, Jesse, Schröder, Tobias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.02.2023; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Bayesian analysis; Change agents; Climate change; Coherence; Conflict; Control theory; Disruption; Emotions; Meaning; Mitigation; Operational definitions; Polarization; Professional identity; Simulation; Social interaction; Social problems; Technological change; Uncertainty; Bayesian affect control theory; societal change; uncertainty; social order
• ISSN: 0002-7642; 1552-3381
• DOI: 10.1177/00027642211066055

Bayesian affect control theory is a model of affect-driven social interaction under conditions of uncertainty. In this paper, we investigate how the operationalization of uncertainty in the model can be related to the disruption of social orders—societal pressures to adapt to ongoing environmental and technological change. First, we study the theoretical tradeoffs between three kinds of uncertainty as groups navigate external problems: validity (the predictability of the environment, including of other agents), coherence (the predictability of interpersonal affective dynamics), and dependence (the predictability of affective meanings). Second, we discuss how these uncertainty tradeoffs are related to contemporary political conflict and polarization in the context of societal transitions. To illustrate the potential of our model to analyze the socio-emotional consequences of uncertainty, we present a simulation of diverging individual affective meanings of occupational identities under uncertainty in a climate change mitigation scenario based on events in Germany. Finally, we sketch a possible research agenda to substantiate the novel, but yet mostly conjectural, ideas put forward in this paper.