Self-certainty: Parallels to attitude certainty

The purpose of this article is to apply theory and research on attitude certainty to the study of the self. Our main goal is to show that research on attitudes, and in particular attitude certainty, can provide useful insights into self-related phenomena. By considering research on attitudes, we may be able to re-interpret previous self-related findings, make new predictions regarding the self, and increase the precision with which we can make existing predictions. Furthermore, this framework can offer new ideas for research on attitudes as well and foster integration between the areas. In this paper, we will 1) outline some fundamental parallels between attitudes and self research, 2) discuss the specific construct of self-certainty, including both the consequences and the origins of certainty, using research on attitude certainty as our organizing framework, and 3) suggest new ideas that this analysis can produce.