Understanding the role of Need For Closure in individuals’ reactions to cognitive inconsistency
The present research is framed in Kruglanski and colleagues’ new theory that inconsistency leads
to negative affect only under certain circumstances (Kruglanski et al., 2018). We conducted an
experiment that shows that Need for Closure (NFC), defined as the desire for epistemic certainty,
can moderate affective reactions to cognitive inconsistency. Furthermore, we find that individuals
who are high on NFC experience more negative affect upon encountering an inconsistent (vs.
consistent) cognition, regardless of whether the inconsistent cognition leads to a positive or
negative outcome. However, for individuals who are low on NFC, their affect depends on whether
the outcome of the cognition is positive or negative, regardless of whether that outcome is
consistent or inconsistent with their expectations. We will discuss implications of these findings.