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Uncertainty, Belongingness, and Four Needs for

Meaning
a a
Tyler F. Stillman & Roy F. Baumeister
a
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida

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To cite this article: Tyler F. Stillman & Roy F. Baumeister (2009): Uncertainty, Belongingness, and Four Needs for Meaning,
Psychological Inquiry: An International Journal for the Advancement of Psychological Theory, 20:4, 249-251

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 Psychological Inquiry, 20: 249–251, 2009
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ISSN: 1047-840X print / 1532-7965 online
DOI: 10.1080/10478400903333544

Uncertainty, Belongingness, and Four Needs for Meaning

Tyler F. Stillman and Roy F. Baumeister
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida

The Van den Bos research program is persuasive The idea that uncertainty promotes meaningless-
in demonstrating that when uncertainty arises, people ness is an untested presumption in the Van den Bos
cling to their cultural worldview. That is, uncertainty analysis. However, we expect that uncertainty would
increases worldview defense. Why? The assumption decrease meaningfulness on the basis of the four needs
is that personal uncertainty indicates that life is mean- for meaning. In particular, uncertainty may have an
ingless and absurd, and defending one’s worldview especially strong effect on purposiveness, because un-
allows the sense that life is meaningful to prevail. In certainty about one’s current actions is likely to re-
other words, people manage feelings of uncertainty, via duce the sense that those actions are contributing to a
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worldview defense, to make sense of life. Indeed, Van future outcome. Similarly, it seems likely that uncer-
den Bos (this issue) proposes that uncertainty man- tainty would detract from efficacy, or the feeling that
agement is the best available model for explaining one has control over outcomes. This is because self-
meaning-making and sense-making. Clearly the ques- uncertainty would likely diminish any confidence one
tion of how people find meaning in life is a crucial has in affecting events outside the self. (If one is un-
aspect of the Van den Bos program of research. certain about the self, how could one have confidence
Our research has focused on how people find mean- in controlling future outcomes?)
ing in life. In this commentary, we briefly discuss find- Uncertainty may affect the other two needs for
ings from our meaningfulness research with relevance meaning, value and positive self-worth, though we
to those of Van den Bos and colleagues. In particular, think the effects would be weaker. Of course, we are
we describe how belongingness is an essential factor in speculating about the effects of uncertainty on meaning
creating meaning in life. We also suggest an alternative and suggest that this relationship merits empirical in-
to uncertainty management—the need to belong—as a quiry. We return to the four needs for meaning shortly.
core motive for meaning making.

Uncertainty and Belonging

Needs for Meaning
When do people experience uncertainty? In partic-
Our research into how people find meaning in life ular, when do they experience the visceral, aversive
has been guided by Baumeister’s (1991) empirically personal uncertainty described by Van den Bos (this
driven thesis that the pursuit for a meaningful life issue)? The article convincingly argues that mortality
is shaped by four specific needs. The first need for salience is one source of personal uncertainty. Cer-
meaning is that of a sense of purpose in life. Having tainly there are others. The standard uncertainty ma-
a purpose means that one perceives current activities nipulation asks participants to write about an emotional
as having an effect on future outcomes. The defining experience that results from uncertainty in their per-
characteristic of purposiveness is that current activities sonal lives. What do they write about? Given that inter-
depend on expected outcomes for meaning (e.g., read- nal processes so often relate to interpersonal relation-
ing a statistics book has meaning, because one may ships, it seems likely that feelings of uncertainty would
expect that doing so would contribute to one’s under- frequently be associated with some kind of belonging-
standing of the statistics or further one’s career). Sec- ness threat. Our speculation is that many people, when
ond, people seek feelings of efficacy, which refers to a asked about an emotional moment of personal uncer-
sense of having control over one’s outcomes. In other tainty, would choose to write about an event related to
words, people satisfy a need to feel efficacious when belongingness or rejection. For instance, a participant
they believe that they have an effect on what happens may write about feeling uncertain about being accepted
in their lives. Third, people want to view their actions or rejected by a new social group, or a participant may
as having value, or as being morally good and cor- choose to write about feeling uncertain about the rea-
rect. Fourth, people seek a sense of positive self-worth. sons a former lover lost romantic interest. It is possible
That is, people seek ways of establishing that they that most participants would complete the uncertainty
are good, admirable, worthy individuals with desirable task by describing a belongingness threat. In other
traits. words, a belongingness perspective on uncertainty
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 COMMENTARIES

management may reveal that uncertainty management We have speculated that uncertainty is really about
is not strictly about uncertainty but at least partly about belongingness, but what is not a matter of speculation is
belongingness threats, just as terror management is not that threats to belongingness do what Van den Bos (this
always about terror and is at least partly about personal issue) asserts personal uncertainty does: Threats to be-
uncertainty. We acknowledge that in the absence of any longingness decrease the belief that life is meaningful
firm data about the events that most commonly bring and bring about a sense that life is absurd (Stillman
about uncertainty, we are speculating about the role et al., 2009). Multiple studies have found that inter-
of belongingness and interpersonal relationships. Still, personal rejection causes people to see the moment of
given the urgency of maintaining relationships (Buss, rejection as relatively low in meaning (e.g., Williams,
1990, 1991; Baumeister & Leary, 1995), we would be Cheung, & Choi, 2000; Zadro, Boland, & Richardson,
surprised if personal uncertainty was not frequently 2006). However, Stillman, Lambert, Baumeister, and
associated with belongingness concerns. Fincham (2009) found that leading participants to be-
Ultimately, one might ask, what is the principal lieve that they were unwanted as social interactants
source of uncertainty in human life? It is hard to argue caused them to agree more strongly with items such as
that when people do worry about death, uncertainty “All strivings in life are futile and absurd” and “Life has
increases the level of worry. The line of thought pio- no meaning or purpose” (see Kunzendorf No Meaning
neered by Ernest Becker and the existentialists before Scale; Kunzendorf & McGuire, 1994;1 Kunzendorf,
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him is that the difference between life and death is the Moran, & Gray, 1995–1996). Results indicated that
principal concern. In contrast to that view, one could ar- both chronic impaired belongingness (loneliness) and
gue that most people spend relatively little time think- discrete events of thwarted belongingness (social re-
ing about issues of life and death. Instead, issues of jection) corresponded to the view that life was absurd
belongingness form the core of daily concerns: how to and meaningless. An analysis of the mechanism by
get along with others, maintain connections, avoid and which thwarted belongingness reduced meaning re-
resolve conflicts, and the like. Perhaps some experi- vealed that all four needs for meaning—purpose, effi-
ence sampling and thought sampling would be needed cacy, value, and self-worth—mediated the relationship
to see whether daily life has a higher rate of concern between thwarted belongingness and reduced sense of
and uncertainty about belongingness or about death. meaning.
Our bet would be on the former. The relationship between belonging and meaning-
In that connection, one of us searched the anxiety fulness is not limited to the effects of thwarted belong-
literature some years ago, inspired partly be the ter- ing. When people are asked to think about a time they
ror management claim that fear of death is the main felt a strong sense of belonging, they see life as more
cause of anxiety. If one expands the category of death meaningful relative to controls (Stillman et al., 2009).
to encompass all manner of injury—admittedly a seri- Likewise, evidence indicates that family relationships
ous dilution of the category—then, yes, death was one (presumably a place of interpersonal belonging) are
major source of anxiety. Even so, however, it was far a primary source of meaning in people’s lives (Lam-
less common than issues of belongingness and exclu- bert, Stillman, et al., in press). Recent research has
sion (Baumeister & Tice, 1990). Most human anxiety demonstrated that thinking about family causes an in-
is focused on issues of belongingness. We suspect that crease in the belief that life is meaningful and that
the same will hold for uncertainty. the mechanism by which thoughts of the family in-
creases meaningfulness is the same as the mechanism
by which thwarted belongingness decreases meaning-
Belonging and Meaning
fulness: Baumeister’s four needs for meaning (but es-
Our quest to understand the motives behind pecially purpose) mediate the relationship between
meaning-making, and the primacy of belongingness in thoughts of family relationships and meaningfulness
our research, was informed by an evolutionary perspec- (Lambert, Baumeister, Stillman, & Fincham, 2009). In
tive. Unlike other species, humans get most of what short, rejection reduces meaningfulness via the four
they need to survive from their social group rather than needs for meaning, and thoughts of family increase
directly from the natural environment. Accordingly, meaningfulness via the four needs.
the human capacity for social relationships and cul-
ture likely evolved to facilitate survival (Baumeister,
2005; Dunbar, 1993, 1997). In other words, the human Summary
strategy for survival depends on belonging. Personal
uncertainty, in most circumstances, is less directly ap- Our opinion is that good research often prompts im-
plicable to survival than belongingness. Hence social portant questions. We have raised four questions. First,
exclusion, more than uncertainty, could threaten peo-
ple at such a basic level that it would impair their sense 1 The No Meaning Scale and Negative Meaning Scale were pub-

of meaningful existence (cf. Williams, 1997, 2002). lished in Kunzendorf, Moran, and Gray’s (1995–1996) appendices.

250
 COMMENTARIES

does uncertainty really prompt people to view life as tal human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497–
less meaningful and more absurd than they otherwise 529.
Baumeister, R. F., & Tice, D. M. (1990). Anxiety and social exclu-
would? We suspect that the answer is yes, but data are
sion. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 165–195.
needed. Second, if uncertainty does decrease meaning- Dunbar, R. I. M. (1993). Neocortex size as a constraint on group size
fulness, what is/are the mechanism(s)? We have found in primates. Journal of Human Evolution, 20, 469–493.
Baumeister’s (1991) four needs for meaning to be a Dunbar, R. I. M. (1997). Grooming, gossip, and the evolution of
useful in addressing questions of mechanism, and we language. London: Faber & Faber.
Kunzendorf, R. G., & McGuire, D. (1994). Depression: The real-
think that purpose and efficacy are good candidates
ity of ‘no meaning’ versus the delusion of ‘negative meaning.’
for mediation. Third, what kinds of emotional events Unpublished manuscript.
do people think about when considering moments of Kunzendorf, R. G., Moran, C., & Gray, R. (1995–1996). Personality
uncertainty? We predict that belongingness concerns traits and reality-testing abilities, controlling for vividness of
would figure prominently as a source of uncertainty, imagery. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 15, 113–
131.
but, again, data are needed. Last, if most participants re-
Lambert, N. M., Baumeister, R. F., Stillman, T. F., & Fincham, F. D.
spond to questions about uncertainty by thinking about (2009). Family and meaning: Examining the four needs for
belongingness concerns, is uncertainty managements meaning as mediators. Manuscript under review.
really strictly about uncertainty, or is it at least partly Lambert, N. M., Stillman, T. F., Baumeister, R. F., Fincham, F. D.,
about belongingness? Hicks, J. A., & Graham, S. M. (in press). Family begets purpose:
Downloaded by [Duke University Libraries] at 15:20 24 August 2012

The unique contribution of family relationships to purpose in

Note life. Journal of Positive Psychology.
Stillman, T. F., Baumeister, R. F., Lambert, N. M., Crescioni, A.W.,
DeWall, C. N., & Fincham, F. D. (2009). Alone and without
Address correspondence to Tyler F. Stillman, 1107 purpose: Life loses meaning following social exclusion. Journal
W. Call Street, Department of Psychology, Florida of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 686–694.
State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306. E-mail: Stillman, T. F., Lambert, N. M., Baumeister, R. F., Fincham, F.
tylerstillman@gmail.com. D. (2009). To belong is to matter: Social inclusion increases
purpose by increasing belonging. Manuscript in preparation,
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.
Williams, K. D. (1997). Social ostracism. In R. M. Kowalski (Ed.),
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