The study looked at how bidders behave in auctions when they are unsure about the values of items being sold and are averse to uncertainty. Unlike sealed-bid auctions, in open auctions bidders can see each other's values and adjust their beliefs. The bidders in the study updated their beliefs using a method called consequentialist Bayesian updating. The researchers found that uncertainty affects bidding similarly to risk aversion in most cases, but not in continuous price descending auctions. This is a unique case where uncertainty does not reinforce the effects of risk aversion.