Charles R. Berger was an American

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

. Berger died on September 25, 2018, from health complications arising from cancer.

Education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

Berger received his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

from

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

. After completing his undergraduate studies, he attended

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

where he received his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in Communication.

Career

He was a Fellow and former president of the

International Communication Association The International Communication Association (ICA) is an academic association for scholars interested in the study, teaching and application of all aspects of human and mediated communication. ICA communicates within the association and with ot ...

. Berger was best known for his formulation of

uncertainty reduction theory The uncertainty reduction theory, also known as initial interaction theory, developed in 1975 by Charles Berger and Richard Calabrese, is a communication theory from the post-positivist Postpositivism or postempiricism is a metatheoretical s ...

. His research interests included message production processes and the processing of threat-related messages by intuitive and rational systems. He was the former editor of '' Human Communication Research'' and co-editor (with Sandra Ball Rokeach) of ''Communication Research''. He was a member of several editorial boards of communication journals. He also was an area editor for the ''International Encyclopedia of Communication''. He was a Fellow and a Past President of the

. He was a co-recipient (with

Judee Burgoon Judee K. Burgoon is a professor of communication, family studies and human development at the University of Arizona, where she serves as director of research for the Center for the Management of Information and site director for the NSF-sponsored ...

) of NCA's Mark Knapp Award. Berger lived in Davis, California with his wife.

Uncertainty reduction theory

Charles Berger was an integral part in formulating the

. The uncertainty reduction theory explains how humans utilize communication strategies to lower uncertainty regarding other human beings. This theory begins to understand the differences in strategies that people use in order to make conversations as well as communication go as smooth as possible. Humans want to stray away from uncertainty and awkwardness so they will employ various communicative techniques. This strategy was introduced by Berger in 1975 and furthered his focus on the study of interpersonal communication. Berger's findings led to the understanding of the uncertainty reduction theory and allowed people to take a deeper look in people's interactions with one another. Furthermore, Berger was able to bring understanding to why and how we use various communicative strategies to lower uncertainty between each other.

Publications

Berger has published over 100 articles and book chapters. He co-edited the first edition of the Handbook of Communication Science with Steven H. Chaffee. He Co-edited the second edition of the Handbook of Communication Science with Michael Roloff and David R. Ewoldsen.

Books

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Papers

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References

External links

UC Davis: Search: People
* https://web.archive.org/web/20181010011129/http://communication.ucdavis.edu/people/fzberger * http://www.sagepub.com/authorDetails.nav?contribId=532243 21st-century American psychologists Communication theorists 2018 deaths University of California, Davis faculty {{US-sociologist-stub