The Need for Cognition as it Relates to Personality Traits of Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness

Abstract

The need for cognition has much promise in predicting academic success. This study examined the relationship between the need for cognition and the personality traits of openness to experience and conscientiousness. The goal was to show that openness to experience and conscientiousness were significant predictors of the need for cognition, while finding which one has stronger predictive power. The data was collected from 300 American users of the website Amazon Mechanical Turk who completed the study online in exchange for monetary compensation. The participants were composed of 154 males and 145 females, and one individual with unreported gender. The participants ranged from 20 years of age to 71 years of age, with an average age of 37.4. The need for cognition was measured using the Need for Cognition Scale. The two personality traits were measured using the Ten-Item Personality Inventory. The results of the study indicated that openness to experience was a stronger predictor of the need for cognition and predicted more variance in the need for cognition.