Your understanding of uncertainty isn’t just shaped by your profession—it’s also deeply influenced by your **culture** and where you happen to live in the world. What feels natural, even self-evident, about uncertainty to you might be entirely foreign to someone raised in a different cultural context. Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede explored this idea through his framework for measuring cultural dimensions.[^1] He identified six key dimensions that define how cultures navigate the world: **Power Distance, Individualism, Uncertainty Avoidance, Masculinity, Long-Term Orientation,** and **Indulgence vs. Restraint.** Of these, **Uncertainty Avoidance** is particularly relevant to our discussion. Uncertainty avoidance measures how comfortable a culture is with ambiguity, unpredictability, and change. Some societies see uncertainty as a **threat**—something to be tamed, controlled, or eliminated whenever possible. Others treat it as **normal,** even necessary—an inevitable part of life to be explored rather than resisted. Hofstede mapped cultures along a continuum between these two extremes, and the contrast is striking: | **Uncertainty-Avoiding Cultures** | **Uncertainty-Tolerant Cultures** | | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | | Uncertainty is a **threat** | Uncertainty is **normal** | | **Fixed** habits | Flexible habits | | Different is **dangerous** | Different is **curious** | | Need for **rules** | Dislike for **rules** | | Seek **truth** (certainty) | Seek **understanding** (exploration) | | Slow adoption of the **new** | Rapid adoption of the **new** | | Prone to **stress** | Less prone to **stress** | You might recognise some of these traits in your own culture—or even in yourself. For reference, the countries that score highest on **uncertainty avoidance** include **Russia, Japan, Greece, and Portugal**—societies that tend to value stability, clear rules, and structured ways of dealing with the unknown. On the other end of the spectrum, the most **uncertainty-tolerant** cultures include **Singapore, Hong Kong, and China** in Asia, and **Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain, and Ireland** in Europe—places where adaptability, experimentation, and openness to ambiguity are more deeply embedded in the cultural DNA. Here is Hofstede's world [map](https://exhibition.geerthofstede.com/hofstedes-globe/) if you want to explore more. What does this mean in practice? It means that when it comes to uncertainty, **we all carry a cultural bias.** If you grew up in an uncertainty-avoiding society, you might instinctively seek clear rules, structure, and definitive answers. You might feel uneasy in situations where the future is unknown or where ambiguity is allowed to persist. By contrast, if you come from an uncertainty-tolerant culture, you might be more comfortable improvising, adapting on the fly, and embracing the unpredictable as just another part of life. Neither approach is inherently right or wrong—they each have their strengths and weaknesses. But it’s useful to be aware of how your cultural background shapes your perception of uncertainty. After all, if uncertainty is as universal as I claim, then we should expect different cultures to respond to it in different ways. This self-awareness is crucial as we think and talk about uncertainty—not just as an abstract concept, but as something that directly influences how we live, work, and make decisions. [[Aleatoric & Epistemic|Next page]] --- [^1]: https://geerthofstede.com/culture-geert-hofstede-gert-jan-hofstede/6d-model-of-national-culture/