All human beings have to face the fact that we do not know what will happen tomorrow: the future is uncertain, but we have to live with it anyway. The essence of uncertainty is that it is a subjective experience, a feeling. These feelings of uncertainty are acquired and learned and the ways of coping with them belong to the cultural heritage of societies. They are transferred and reinforced through basic institutions such as the family, the school, and the state.

Uncertainty avoidance: the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous (open to more than one interpretation/not clear) or unknown situations. This feeling is, among other manifestations, expressed through nervous stress and in a need for predictability: a need for written and unwritten rules.

Anxiety is not fear and uncertainty avoidance is not risk avoidance. Fear and risk are both focussed on something specific. Anxiety and uncertainty are both diffuse feelings. Rather than leading to reducing risk, uncertainty avoidance leads to a reduction of ambiguity.

Uncertainty avoidance is placed on a continuum with Weak uncertainty avoidance on one end and Strong uncertainty avoidance on the other.