The Pain of Meaninglessness: Why it Hurts to be Uncertain

Rachele Benjamin, Psychology
Coach House, Green College, UBC
Monday, April 18, 8-9 pm

How would you feel if you woke up tomorrow, and all of your furniture was on the ceiling?

As human beings, we are highly motivated to find meaning in the events that take place around us. We want to believe that the world makes sense, and that we have the capacity to understand it. Without meaning, we would have no way of predicting what will happen to us next, and no way of knowing what we're supposed to do about it. For this reason, we find it profoundly disturbing when meaning breaks down. Studies have shown that when our expectations are violated, our brains put out a distress signal similar to one produced by physical pain. As a result, we go to great lengths to re-establish meaningful relationships between objects and events in the world. This talk explores the various consequences of uncertainty, and how we behave in the face of meaninglessness. Rachele will discuss some very unsuccessful first year projects, as well as some exciting future directions—all about how meaning, or the absence of meaning, impacts our lives.