The Paradox of Uncertainty: How Tolerance for Uncertainty Modulates Approach Motivation - Evidence from ERPs Experiments

Background Certainty has an important meaning for an individual, as it gives a sense of security and fulfillment. However, uncertainty occurs every day in real life, causing anxiety and aversion. Therefore, individuals take measures to cope with uncertain feelings. Previous studies have hinted at the important role of approach motivation in alleviating uncertainty and the possibility that loss of a sense of control may induce approach motivations and behaviors, but there is no clear empirical research demonstrating this mechanism. We explored the role of uncertainty in the induction of approach motivation and the moderating role of uncertainty tolerance. Method In the present study, we measured subjects' uncertainty tolerance trait, in addition to the classical forced-choice gambling task, and measured 20 subjects' brainwave changes in uncertain situations, using the lateralization of approach-motivated brain activity to test the above hypotheses using the FRN and the P300 as the response indexes. Result Subjects who received the feedback "+/-/?" in the gambling task were followed by the production of FRN in the right brain and then P300 in the left brain, and the peaks of the P300 wave in the "+" and "-" feedback cases were significantly lower than those of "?". In addition, the peak difference between the left and right brain P300 waves was significantly higher in individuals with low uncertainty tolerance than in those with low uncertainty tolerance. Conclusion We found that subjects experience significant uncertainty after making a high-risk versus high-reward choice and uncertainty is accompanied by approach motivation. After we grouped the subjects according to the level of uncertainty tolerance, we found that the difference between left and right brain P300 was significantly smaller in the high-tolerance group than in the low-tolerance group, suggesting that uncertainty tolerance plays a moderating role in uncertainty-induced approach motivation.