Meme Spreading And Uncertainty Avoidance

Sat, 06 Aug 2011

I recently read “Why Being Certain Means Being Wrong” (a brillant blogpost by Ted Cadsby) and started to wonder how the urge to avoid uncertainty influences communication and meme replication.

Once the mental wave function of uncertainty collapses the person who made the decision will likely explain his choice to himself (these rationalisations are made up ex post) and perhaps talk to his friends about it, i.e. he creates a meme about his decision.

If we assume a larger group of people facing the same uncertainty concerning some relevant issue, I’d guess that the meme which reduces the uncertainty most effectively will spread fastest und widest within the group.