Finding Our Way through New Experiences

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I've recently been pondering how we respond to social situations where we don't have a guiding social framework. This idea was triggered by the Guerilla Handbell Strikeforce and quickly springboards into other complex situations. Read more at my professional blog: aha-moments.com

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Hoffstede tracks this aspect as one of his Cultural Dimensions and defines his Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) as:

Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) deals with a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity; it ultimately refers to man's search for Truth. It indicates to what extent a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations. Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising, different from usual. Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations by strict laws and rules, safety and security measures, and on the philosophical and religious level by a belief in absolute Truth; 'there can only be one Truth and we have it'. People in uncertainty avoiding countries are also more emotional, and motivated by inner nervous energy. The opposite type, uncertainty accepting cultures, are more tolerant of opinions different from what they are used to; they try to have as few rules as possible, and on the philosophical and religious level they