High Need For Closure Research Articles

Need for Closure Moderates the Break in the Message Effect.

Cutting the message into smaller portions is a common practice in the media. Typically such messages consist of a headline followed by a story elaboration. In a series of studies Dolinski and Kofta (2001) have shown that such a break in the message increases the effect of the information provided in the headline over that of a story which actually contained information inconsistent with that headline. A possible explanation of this effect, based on the concept of the need for cognitive closure, is presented in the article. The experiment shows that break-in-the-message effect is found mainly for participants with high need for closure but not for those with low such need.

Rising up to the ‘challenge’? The role of need for closure and situational appraisals in creative performance

In two studies, we examined the influence of need for closure (NFC), and motivational states of challenge and threat on creativity. NFC is defined as a desire for quick and unambiguous answers to questions and an aversion to uncertainty. Creativity tasks usually elicit uncertainty; we predicted that high (vs. low) NFC people would decline in creativity due to the distress caused by creativity tasks. We argued that the appraisal of the creativity task as challenge would increase creative performance while appraising the same as threat would decrease creativity. We suggested, however, that high NFC individuals would show low creativity regardless of the induced state of threat or challenge, experiencing constant distress associated with creativity tasks. However, low NFC individuals would be more creative in a challenge state; however in the threat condition, they would show less creativity. In Study 1, challenge and threat were induced using mindset manipulations and in Study 2, challenge and threat states were invoked by implementing false feedback of success and failure and perceived resource gain or loss. The manipulations were followed by the Alternative Uses Brick task to measure creativity. Results confirmed the assumptions and were discussed in the context of need for closure theory.

Inhibition Underlies the Effect of High Need for Closure on Cultural Closed-Mindedness under Mortality Salience.

The hypothesis that people respond to reminders of mortality with closed-minded, ethnocentric attitudes has received extensive empirical support, largely from research in the Terror Management Theory (TMT) tradition. However, the basic motivational and neural processes that underlie this effect remain largely hypothetical. According to recent neuropsychological theorizing, mortality salience (MS) effects on cultural closed-mindedness may be mediated by activity in the behavioral inhibition system (BIS), which leads to passive avoidance and decreased approach motivation. This should be especially true for people motivated to avoid unfamiliar and potentially threatening stimuli as reflected in a high need for closure (NFC). In two studies involving moderated mediation analyses, people high on trait NFC responded to MS with increased BIS activity (as indicated by EEG and the line bisection task), which is characteristic of inhibited approach motivation. BIS activity, in turn, predicted a reluctance to explore foreign cultures (Study 1) and generalized ethnocentric attitudes (Study 2). In a third study, inhibition was induced directly and caused an increase in ethnocentrism for people high on NFC. Moreover, the effect of the inhibition manipulation × NFC interaction on ethnocentrism was explained by increases in BIS-related affect (i.e., anxious inhibition) at high NFC. To our knowledge, this research is the first to establish an empirical link between very basic, neurally-instantiated inhibitory processes and rather complex, higher-order manifestations of intergroup negativity in response to MS. Our findings contribute to a fuller understanding of the cultural worldview defense phenomenon by illuminating the motivational underpinnings of cultural closed-mindedness in the wake of existential threat.

Need for Closure Effects on Affective and Cognitive Responses to Culture Fusion

This research examined how affective and cognitive responses to culture fusion, a specific type of culture mixing that features the blending of different cultures or parts thereof into a new entity, are influenced by individual differences in Need for Closure (NFC). Two studies showed that individuals high (vs. low) in NFC felt less favorable toward culture fusion (i.e., the affective response), both at an abstract level (i.e., society structure models; Study 1, N = 191) and at a more concrete level (i.e., food stimuli; Study 2, N = 257). In addition, high NFC individuals tended to assign culturally fused stimuli to one discrete culture, rather than acknowledging them as culturally hybrid (i.e., the cognitive response). Furthermore, mediation analyses showed that the relationships between NFC and responses toward culture fusion were mediated by Right-Wing Authoritarianism. These findings are interpreted in terms of the threat to epistemic security needs posed by culture fusion.

Need for cognitive closure may impede the effectiveness of epistemic belief instruction

The present article examines the effects of need for cognitive closure on epistemic belief instruction efficacy. Individual differences in need for closure were assumed to interfere with the mechanisms postulated in Bendixen's (2002) process model of epistemic change and thus impede intervention effectiveness. A short-term epistemic belief intervention drawing on both the presentation of diverging (i.e., controversial) information and on constructivist teaching approaches (i.e., moderated discussion) was developed. Instruction primarily aimed at reducing absolute and multiplicistic beliefs in psychology freshmen. In a pretest-posttest field-experimental study, 83 psychology freshmen were randomly assigned to the intervention group or one of two control groups (learning strategies instruction group or untreated control group). As expected, epistemic belief intervention reduced both absolute and multiplicistic beliefs. With regard to multiplicistic beliefs, high need for closure significantly reduced instruction efficacy. Our findings thus highlight the crucial importance of considering individual differences in epistemic belief instruction.

The Impact of a Need for Closure and Support Quality on Verbal and Cognitive Brooding

This study examined whether a need for closure explains why people verbally brood and whether the support received when they verbally brood during a conversation reduces anxiety and cognitive brooding afterward. In two studies, friends came into the laboratory and were randomly assigned to be a subject or confederate. The confederate was trained to provide “good support” or “poor support” to the subject who talked about a stressor he or she could not stop thinking and talking about recently with that friend. The overall models suggested that individuals were more likely to verbally brood when they had a higher need for closure and were more likely to feel better and positively reframe the stressor when the friend was supportive rather than unsupportive, which reduced anxiety. However, if individuals did feel better and/or positively reframed their stressor, even if they received “poor support,” it reduced their anxiety. Finally, positive reframing of the stressor, rather than simply feeling better, helped subjects reduce their cognitive brooding 20 minutes after the conversation.

Search for Expectancy-Inconsistent Information Reduces Uncertainty Better: The Role of Cognitive Capacity.

Motivation and cognitive capacity are key factors in people’s everyday struggle with uncertainty. However, the exact nature of their interplay in various contexts still needs to be revealed. The presented paper reports on two experimental studies which aimed to examine the joint consequences of motivational and cognitive factors for preferences regarding incomplete information expansion. In Study 1 we demonstrate the interactional effect of motivation and cognitive capacity on information preference. High need for closure resulted in a stronger relative preference for expectancy-inconsistent information among non-depleted individuals, but the opposite among cognitively depleted ones. This effect was explained by the different informative value of questions in comparison to affirmative sentences and the potential possibility of assimilation of new information if it contradicts prior knowledge. In Study 2 we further investigated the obtained effect, showing that not only questions but also other kinds of incomplete information are subject to the same dependency. Our results support the expectation that, in face of incomplete information, motivation toward closure may be fulfilled efficiently by focusing on expectancy-inconsistent pieces of data. We discuss the obtained effect in the context of previous assumptions that high need for closure results in a simple processing style, advocating a more complex approach based on the character of the provided information.

Understanding African American college students' H1N1 vaccination decisions.

In this study, we examined the effects of cognitive appraisals and individual differences in discomfort with uncertainty, as measured by a short form of Webster and Kruglanski's (1994) Need for Closure (NFC) scale, on African American college students' self-reported H1N1 vaccination decisions during the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic. Howard University undergraduates, who self-identified as Black or African American and met U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) H1N1 high-priority group criteria, completed computer-administered surveys that included (a) questions about H1N1 vaccination status; self-efficacy; perceived costs, benefits, and efficaciousness of the H1N1 vaccine; and potential barriers to vaccination, including flu-shot frequency; (b) demographic measures; and (c) a short form of Kruglanski's NFC scale (Orehek et al., 2010). A sequential multinomial logistic regression revealed (a) a significant effect of NFC on vaccination status such that higher NFC was associated with lower odds of being vaccinated or intending to be vaccinated, after controlling for demographic variables, comfort with flu vaccinations more generally, and several other potential vaccination barriers, χ(2)(2, 217) = 10.08, p = .006; and (b) vaccination status was best accounted for by a model that included perceptions of the vaccine's costs, benefits, and efficaciousness, and participants' self-efficacy for being vaccinated, χ(2)(6, 217) = 57.24, p < .001. Our data suggest the importance of cognitive appraisals and traits (i.e., comfort with uncertainty) in the process individuals use to make potentially life-saving vaccination decisions.

The closing of open minds: Need for closure moderates the impact of uncertainty salience on outgroup discrimination.

In three studies, we examined how dispositional need for cognitive closure (NCC) moderates the impact of various types of uncertainty salience (personal and supraliminal in studies 1 and 2; economic and subliminal in Study 3) on implicit attitudes (studies 1 and 3) and explicit discriminatory intentions (Study 2) towards outgroup members. Across all three studies, we found that uncertainty increased discrimination against outgroups among low-NCC individuals but not among high-NCC individuals. High-NCC individuals tended to be more discriminatory irrespective of uncertainty salience. These results suggest that uncertainty salience leads individuals with a low dispositional need for closure to act like those with high need for closure. The implications of the findings for theories about how uncertainty influences social attitudes and intergroup behaviour are discussed.

Electrocortical indices of attention correlate with the need for closure.

Need for closure (NFC), defined as a desire for a quick and unambiguous answer to a question and an aversion to uncertainty, usually leads to a more structured, persistent, and rigid cognitive style. We suggested that this cognitive characteristic could be related to differences in a simple sensory gating control mechanism as reflected in event-related potentials (N1 component). We expected that the higher an individual's NFC, the more attention he/she would allocate to the selected stimuli or the feature of the stimuli, which is manifested in an increased N1 component. We tested this assumption in two experiments where NFC was measured by a scale and event-related potentials were recorded during the Stroop task and the Visual Distractor task. In line with the hypotheses, we found that NFC was associated with amplified processing of stimuli at an early sensory stage, which was evidenced in an increased N1 component. We suggested that this early sensory gating mechanism protects high NFC individuals against anxiety-producing uncertainty.

Individual differences in response to uncertainty and decision making: The role of behavioral inhibition system and need for closure.

In two studies, we examined the influence of behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and need for closure (NFC) on information processing in decision making. We expected that BIS would regulate behavior in a decisional context and that this relationship would be mediated by epistemic motivation expressed by NFC. In addition, drawing on contradictory findings in the literature on anxiety, NFC, and information processing, we investigated the moderating role of decision rules. The results supported our predictions. BIS was strongly and positively related to NFC, and through NFC it was related to decision-making style. Moreover, decision task characteristics moderated the relationship between NFC and decision making. When a task did not offer a confident decision rule, high NFC participants prolonged the information search more than low NFC individuals. However, when a reliable strategy was suggested, high NFC participants behaved in line with it. These results are discussed within an uncertainty management framework.

Individual Differences Underlying Punishment Motivation

Two motivations underlying punishment can be distinguished. On the one hand, the retributive motivation prescribes that punishment should be proportional to the moral offense caused. On the other hand, according the utilitarian perspective, punishment should be aimed at protecting society by reducing the likelihood of similar infractions. Previous research did not examine whether individual differences could lead to a preference for one of the two motivations. We propose that high need for closure could be associated with higher utilitarian motivation because of its general concern for group related consequences of violations. In support of our hypothesis, in Study 1 we found that individuals high in need for closure endorsed to a greater extent a zero-tolerance policy rather than a proportional one. Study 2 further showed that closed-minded individuals sought more information related to the utilitarian, rather than the retributive perspective, when judging a violation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

'Beauty is no quality in things themselves': epistemic motivation affects implicit preferences for art.

Art preferences are affected by a number of subjective factors. This paper reports two studies which investigated whether need for closure shapes implicit art preferences. It was predicted that higher need for closure would negatively affect implicit preferences for abstract art. In study one, 60 participants were tested for dispositional need for closure and then completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) task to measure their implicit preference for abstract (vs. figurative) paintings. In study two, 54 participants completed the same IAT task. In this experiment need for closure was both manipulated by cognitive load and tapped as a dispositional trait. Results of the studies converged in showing that after controlling for other important individual factors such as participants'expertise and cognitive ability, need for closure, both as a dispositional trait and as a situationally induced motivational state, was negatively associated with implicit preference for abstract art.

Epistemic motivation and perpetuation of group culture: Effects of need for cognitive closure on trans-generational norm transmission

The role of need for cognitive closure (NFCC, Kruglanski, 2004) in the transmission of a group norm is examined in three studies carried out in both experimental and natural settings. It was hypothesized that for persons high in NFCC a greater resistance to change is produced both via the urgency tendency of newcomers and the permanence tendency of old-timers; accordingly, groups composed of high need for closure individuals should exhibit greater cultural stability than groups composed of low NFCC. The first study investigated that hypothesis in a natural setting where young adults rated their health behavior and that of their parents. Consistent with our hypothesis, results of a moderated regression analysis showed that for participants high (vs. low) in dispositional NFCC the relation between parents’ and offspring behavior is stronger, implying normative continuity. The remaining two studies applied Jacobs and Campbell’s (1961) paradigm wherein group norms are induced and transmitted across generations of a laboratory microculture. In the first study, NFCC was induced by means of environmental noise whereas in the second study it was varied via group composition, consisting of participants with High vs. Low scores on the NFCC Scale. Results of both studies confirmed the hypothesis that cultures under high need for closure show a greater normative stability across generations. Moreover, the experimental studies clarify that the observed, need for closure based, stability was promoted by newcomers’ greater tendency to seize to the group norms in condition of high (versus low) NFCC.

The influence of need for closure on expectations about and outcomes of negotiations

Abstract Need for closure is a construct that describes a motivational tendency to quickly select and prioritize information in the environment. Such tendencies can affect the process of negotiations, and so the quality of their outcome. The rigidity that accompanies high need for closure can lead to less openness to proposals that benefit one’s partner, and to solutions that are less optimal. We conducted a study in which 34 pairs of individuals negotiated. Pairs were matched in terms of need for closure (high vs. low) and gender. We found that need for closure affected subjective evaluations of certain aspects of the negotiation process. Participants with low need for closure were more likely to indicate that they and their partners sought win-win solutions during the negotiation. This led to a greater sense of process fairness for the negotiation. These results can be taken into consideration when teaching negotiations, and when planning real-life negotiations.

Forming impressions of in-group and out-group members under self-esteem threat: The moderating role of the need for cognitive closure and prejudice

This study aims to investigate whether and how participants’ need for cognitive closure (NCC) and their level of the prejudice moderate the self-esteem threats’ influence on their perception of in-group and out-group members. There is still an open debate concerning the relationship between in-group favoritism and out-group negativity, as well as concerning factors that may increase these two phenomena and their reciprocity. Participants (78 students) completed a questionnaire containing the scales of prejudice and NCC. Subsequently, after they watched a short movie clip showing an interaction between an in-group member behaving negatively and an out-group member behaving positively, participants were exposed to a self-esteem threat (vs. self-enhancement), and, finally, they were requested to evaluate these in-group and out-group members. Results, as hypothesized, show that self-esteem threats increase negative evaluations of the out-group members and decrease negative evaluations of the in-group members only among participants with a high need for closure and a high level of prejudice.

EPISTEMINĖ MOTYVACIJA KAIP SOCIALINIŲ PRIETARŲ PREDIKTORIUS: KOGNITYVINIO UŽBAIGTUMO POREIKIO IR AMBIVALENTIŠKO SEKSIZMO SĄSAJOS

Scientific problem. Scarce research evidence show that preference for quick, definite and stable knowledge, as reflected in the construct of the need for closure (NFC), can be related to hostile and benevolent sexism (Roets et al., 2012). However, it is unknown whether NFC varies between different – ambivalent and univalent – sexism profiles. The aim of the present research was to investigate the relationship between NFC and sexism and to test gender as a moderator of these links. Method. A heterogeneous sample (N = 187, 108 women and 79 men, ages ranging 18–68 years: M = 26,73, SD = 8,53) completed revised Need for Closure Scale (Roets, Van Hiel, 2007) and Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Glick, Fiske, 1996). Results confirmed that NFC can significantly predict both types of sexism when controlling for gender. Gender moderated only the link between NFC and benevolent sexism (the relationship was stronger for women). When different sexism profiles were considered, results showed that NFC is higher for those expressing ambivalent (in contrast to univalent) sexist attitudes. Also, NFC was higher for women in all groups. Conclusion. Study showed that prejudice towards women can be explained by motivational differences in knowledge formation. Higher NFC is associated with higher endorsement of both hostile and benevolent sexism. These findings are in line with the theoretical assumption that ambivalent sexism might function as a system justifying ideology serving epistemic needs for stability.

Trusting others: the polarization effect of need for closure.

Because trust-related issues inherently involve uncertainty, we expected individuals' social-cognitive motivation to manage uncertainty--which is captured by their need for closure--to influence their level of trust in others. Through the results of 6 studies, we showed that higher need for closure was related to more polarized trust judgments (i.e., low trust in distant others and high trust in close others) in the case of both chronic and situational need for closure. Moreover, participants with high need for closure did not revise their level of trust when they received feedback about the trustees' actual trustworthiness, whereas participants with low need for closure did. Overall, our findings indicate that polarized (either high or low, as opposed to moderate) and persistent levels of trust may serve people's seizing and freezing needs for achieving cognitive closure.

Personal choice: a blessing or a burden, or both? A cross-cultural investigation on need for closure effects in two Western and two East-Asian societies.

The present study investigates the role of dispositional need for closure (NFC) in how individuals within a particular culture perceive and appreciate choice. Data sets from the US (283 adults), Europe (263 adults and 427 students), China (218 adults and 309 students) and Singapore (258 students) were collected. The results showed that in Western cultures, people perceived choice in a linear way as either a burden or a blessing, whereas in Chinese culture, such opposition between perspectives did not appear, and individuals generally saw choice as both burden and blessing simultaneously. In Western cultures, high dispositional NFC was strongly associated with viewing choice-as-a-burden, whereas Chinese respondents with a high NFC perceived choice as a blessing and a burden simultaneously. The Singaporean results were similar to the Western pattern. These findings are discussed in terms of the NFC literature and cultural differences in dialectic versus differentiation thinking styles.

Perceptions of male victim blame in a child sexual abuse case: effects of gender, age and need for closure

According to the gender stereotypes attributed to men, and research on adult male victims, boys subjected to sexual abuse are expected to be better able to defend themselves than girls, and are thought to be more likely to adopt a proactive attitude in the victim–perpetrator relationship. They are consequently regarded as more blameworthy than female victims. In the present study, 384 French respondents read through a sexual abuse scenario in which the child victim's gender, perpetrator's gender and victim's age (7 vs. 12 years old) were manipulated. As expected, male respondents blamed the victim more than female respondents did, especially when the victim was a boy. Furthermore, male respondents blamed the perpetrator less than female respondents did, especially when the perpetrator was a woman and the victim a boy. However, these effects were observed for victims of both 7 and 12 years old while it was expected only for the 12-year-old victims. Finally, as expected, respondents who expressed a high need for closure perceived the victim as less credible and more guilty than respondents who expressed a low need for closure, particularly when the victim was 12 years old. This cognitive characteristic thus appears to moderate the expression of stereotypical representations.