Ricerc@Sapienza

Two studies were conducted to verify whether individuals who are high on need for cognitive closure (NFC) have a greater preference for consistency. NFC represents a personal aversion toward uncertainty that induces a desire for certain knowledge, order, and structure. As suggested by a recent theory and research on cognitive consistency, individuals who are high on NFC are uncomfortable with inconsistent information that can undermine their desire for certain knowledge. On the other hand, these individuals should prefer consistent information that can preserve epistemic certainty.

We present an experiment showing that need for closure (NFC)—defined as the epistemic desire for certainty—can moderate individuals' affective reactions to cognitive inconsistency. Informed by Kruglanski and colleagues' new theory, that cognitive inconsistency elicits negative affect particularly under certain circumstances, we find that NFC (i.e. the desire for certain, stable and unambiguous knowledge) influences the strength of consistency effects and resulting negative affect.