ArticleFrontiers in psychology2020
What You Don't Know Can Hurt You: Uncertainty Impairs Executive Function.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Psychological uncertainty in human experience and behavior: a systematic review on measurements, induction, and effects.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Measures of the psychophysiological response to recurrent anticipatory stress - the influence of neuroticism on heart rhythm and skin resistance.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- The Early 2020 COVID-19 Outbreak in China and Subsequent Flourishing: Medium-Term Effects and Intervening Mechanisms.Society and mental health · 2023Article
- Commentary: Two Ways of Thinking About Self-Control.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Three studies demonstrated that situational uncertainty impairs executive function on subsequent unrelated tasks. Participants were randomly assigned to either uncertain situations (not knowing whether they would have to give a speech later, Studies 1-2; uncertain about how to complete a task, Study 3) or control conditions. Uncertainty caused poor performance on tasks requiring executive function that were unrelated to the uncertainty manipulation. Uncertainty impaired performance even more than certainty of negative outcomes (might vs. definitely will have to make a speech). A meta-analysis of the experimental studies in this package found that the effect is small and reliable. One potential explanation for this effect of uncertainty on executive function is that uncertainty is a cue for conserving effort.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.