Membership has its (epistemic) rewards: Need for closure effects on in-group bias.

Three studies examined the impact of the need for cognitive closure on manifestations of in-group bias. All 3 studies found that high (vs. low) need for closure increased in-group favoritism and out-group derogation. Specifically, Study 1 found a positive relation between need for cognitive closure and both participants' ethnic group identification and their collective self-esteem. Studies 2 and 3 found a positive relation between need for closure and participants' identification with an in-group member and their acceptance of an in-group member's beliefs and attitudes. Studies 2 and 3 also found a negative relation between need for closure and participants' identification with an out-group member and their acceptance of an out-group member's beliefs and attitudes. The implications of these findings for the epistemic function of in-groups are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivated resistance and openness to persuasion in the presence or absence of prior information.

Investigated the relation between need for cognitive closure and persuasion in 3 experiments. In Exp 1, Ss high on an individual-differences measure of need for closure were more resistant to persuasion by their low need-for-closure counterparts than vice versa. In Exp 2, Ss in a noisy environment, assumed to instill a relatively high need for closure, were more resistant to persuasion than Ss in a quiet environment, but only in presence of an initial informational base for an opinion. In its absence, Ss in the noisy (vs quiet) environment were less resistant to persuasion. The interaction between need for closure and informational base was replicated in the 3rd experiment reverting to the individual-differences measure of need for closure. The discussion considered implications of these findings for further persuasion phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding Responses to Political Conflict: Interactive Effects of the Need for Closure and Salient Conflict Schemas.

Two studies examined the relationship between the need for cognitive closure and preferences for conflict-resolution strategies in 2 different samples of elite political actors. Although research has suggested that high need for closure should be associated with competitiveness, the authors argue that this relationship should be strongest among political actors with a hostile conflict schema, or representation of what a conflict is and how it should be dealt with. The authors provide evidence for this hypothesis using archival survey data on American foreign-policy officials' attitudes toward international conflict at the height of the Cold War (Study 1) and their own data on the relationship between the need for closure and conflict-strategy preferences among samples of activists from 2 political parties in Poland: a centrist party with a reputation for cooperativeness and an extremist party with a reputation for confrontation (Study 2). The broader implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do you two know each other? Transitivity, homophily, and the need for (network) closure.

The authors investigate whether need for closure affects how people seek order in judging social relations. In Study 1, the authors find that people who have a high need for closure (NFC) were more likely to assume their social contacts were connected to each other (i.e., transitivity) when this was not the case. In Studies 2 and 3, the authors examine another form of order in network relations—racial homophily—and find that high-NFC participants were more inclined to believe that 2 individuals from the same racial category (e.g., African American) were friends than two racially dissimilar individuals. Furthermore, high-NFC individuals were more likely to make errors when judging a racially mixed group of people; specifically, they recalled more racial homophily (racially similar people sitting closer together) than had actually appeared. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infant perception of /aba/ versus /apa/: Building a quantitative model of infant categorical discrimination.

Two experiments using a visual habituation paradigm examined 7.5 mo-old infants' categorical discrimination of the medial stop consonants /aba/ and /apa/. Infants received digitized natural speech tokens differing in the duration of consonantal closure and in the presence or absence of vocal-fold pulsing. The results provided clear evidence of infant categorical discrimination based solely on closure duration. Infants also shifted their boundary (toward shorter closure durations) if they received pulsing during habituation. A trading relation between closure duration and pulsing was also obtained. Three different quantitative models of infant speech perception were examined. A composite model incorporating categorical discrimination, the boundary shift, and the trading relation produced excellent predictions of infant performance. Application of this model to other aspects of infant speech perception was discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Social Cognition of Immigrants' Acculturation: Effects of the Need for Closure and the Reference Group at Entry.

Three studies found support for the notion that immigrants' acculturation to the host culture is interactively determined by their need for cognitive closure (A. W. Kruglanski & D. M. Webster, 1996) and the reference group they forge on their arrival. If such reference group is fashioned by close social relations with coethnics, the higher the immigrants' need for closure, the weaker their tendency to assimilate to the new culture and the stronger their tendency to adhere to the culture of origin. By contrast, if the reference entry group is fashioned by close relations with members of the host country, the higher their need for closure, the stronger their tendency to adapt to the new culture and the weaker their tendency to maintain the culture of origin. These findings obtained consistently across 3 immigrant samples in Italy, 1 Croatian and 2 Polish, and across multiple different measures of acculturation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Links between social network closure and child well-being: The organizing role of friendship context.

Third grade children (N = 404) and their mothers completed questionnaires and participated in interviews designed to identify children's friendships across multiple contexts, determine levels of social network closure for these friendships, and assess child well-being. Cluster analyses revealed distinct patterns in the contexts in which children's friendships were maintained. Closure was highest for children whose friendship clusters heavily represented relatives as friends and lowest when friends were from schools and the broader community. Intermediate levels of closure were observed for the clusters of neighborhood friends and friends from church and school. Both friendship cluster and, to some extent, ethnicity moderated associations between closure and indicators of well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual closure in schizophrenia.

The concept of closure has been more frequently investigated using normal Ss than psychotic patients. The present study utilizes schizophrenics and compares their performance with a comparable group of hospitalized nonpsychotic Ss. Taylor's (1960) test of closure was used. Tendency to closure tended to be lower for the schizophrenics than for the nonschizophrenics, with schizophrenics on drugs (and, hence, manifesting a greater degree of personality disorganization than the other schizophrenic Ss) showing no tendency towards closure. The results are related to 2 theories of schizophrenia, one which involves a deficit in the energizing or arousal systems in the brain, and the other, an inability to maintain a set in the way normal Ss do. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4JQ31S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forgetting all else: On the antecedents and consequences of goal shielding.

Six studies explore the role of goal shielding in self-regulation by examining how activation of focal goals to which the individual is committed inhibits the accessibility of alternative goals. Consistent evidence was found for such goal shielding, and a number of its moderators were identified: Individuals' level of commitment to the focal goal, their degree of anxiety and depression, their need for cognitive closure, and differences in their goal-related tenacity. Moreover, inhibition of alternative goals was found to be more pronounced when they serve the same overarching purpose as the focal goal, but lessened when the alternative goals facilitate focal goal attainment. Finally, goal shielding was shown to have beneficial consequences for goal pursuit and attainment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive and motivational processes underlying coping flexibility: A dual-process model.

Discriminative facility was proposed as a cognitive process and need for closure was proposed as a motivational process underlying coping flexibility. The dual-process model posits that need for closure influences discriminative facility, which in turn modifies coping flexibility and psychological adjustment. In Study 1, results of structural equation modeling provided support for the dual-process model. This model was further examined using experimental methods (Study 2) and a prospective design (Study 3). Consistent with the dual-process model, results from all 3 studies showed that participants who were more motivated to seek alternative coping strategies tended to encode stressful situations in a more differentiated way. These individuals used a greater variety of strategies to fit different situational demands and were better adjusted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivated response styles: The role of cultural values, regulatory focus, and self-consciousness in socially desirable responding.

Three studies investigated the relations between cultural values and socially desirable responding, the processes that underlie them, and factors that influence the strength of the relations. Results indicated that individualism was associated with self-deceptive enhancement but not impression management, whereas collectivism was associated with impression management but not self-deceptive enhancement. Regulatory focus was found to mediate these relations. A promotion focus mediated the relation between individualism and self-deceptive enhancement, whereas a prevention focus mediated the relation between collectivism and impression management. This mediation pattern held regardless of whether individualism and collectivism were determined at the group level (Study 1) or measured at the individual level (Studies 2–3), whether socially desirable responding was operationalized as a scale measure (Studies 1–3) or as reactions to behavioral scenarios (Study 2), and across different measures of regulatory focus. This general mediation pattern was found to be moderated by type of self-consciousness (Study 3): The promotion focus mediation was stronger for participants low (vs. high) in private self-consciousness, and the prevention focus mediation was stronger for participants high (vs. low) in public self-consciousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impulsive closure as reaction to failure-induced threat.

"Some persons impose meaning and pattern—closure—on ambiguous stimuli more readily than other persons… the hypothesis is proposed that closure generally acquires a self-esteem enhancing reward value and that persons experiencing greater need to maintain or enhance self-esteem are… likely to impose more impulsive closure. Self-esteem was manipulated by causing some subjects to experience failure on an ego involving task and others… to experience failure on a noninvolving task or to experience success. Ego involving failure resulted in more impulsive closure." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of negative moods on self-enhancing cognitions: The role of reflective versus ruminative mood orientations.

This research program examined how self-focused attention to feelings affects the relation between mood negativity and self-enhancing thought. The primary hypothesis was that the particular manner in which people focus on their moods (reflective vs. ruminative) determines whether they reveal positive (i.e., mood-incongruent) or negative (i.e., mood-congruent) self-relevant thoughts in response to negative moods. Studies 1-4 revealed that social comparisons, temporal comparisons, and other self-enhancing cognitions (i.e., attributions, disidentification, relationship evaluations) are more likely to be mood incongruent when people adopt a reflective orientation to their negative feelings and more likely to be mood congruent when they adopt a ruminative orientation. Additionally, moods and mood orientations affected self-enhancing thoughts through the mediating influence of mood regulation goals and intentions (Studies 5 and 6). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intuition and the correspondence between implicit and explicit self-esteem.

Four studies tested whether the perceived validity of intuition increases the correspondence between implicit and explicit self-esteem. Studies 1 and 2 found, with 2 different measures of implicit self-esteem, that people who chronically view their intuition as valid have more consistent implicit and explicit self-esteem. In contrast, people with relatively low faith in their intuition had a negative relation between implicit and explicit self-esteem, suggesting that they may overcorrect their explicit self-views for the potential bias posed by implicit self-esteem. In Studies 3 and 4, participants who were induced to view their intuition as valid reported explicit self-views (self-evaluations made under time pressure, or state self-esteem) that were more consistent with their implicit self-esteem. These results suggest that people experience implicit self-esteem as intuitive evaluations. The correspondence between implicit and explicit self-esteem among individuals who view their intuition as valid may suggest that these individuals incorporate implicit self-esteem into their explicit self-views. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond a stereotyped view of older adults' traditional family values.

Structural equation models for predictors of traditional family values regarding relationships were examined in 2 samples: undergraduate students and adults ranging widely in age (23–86 yrs). Predictor variables included verbal ability, need for cognition, need for closure, intolerance for ambiguity, religiosity, and gender orientation. The models accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in traditional family values (64% for students, 63% for adults). Findings provide little support for common stereotypes regarding age and gender differences in traditionalism. Instead, 3 individual-differences variables predicted traditional family values: need for closure, religiosity, and verbal ability. Outcomes argue for the need to identify multiple mechanisms by which personal characteristics such as need for closure and religiosity influence traditionalism in social belief systems and argue against reliance on status variables such as age and gender as explanatory variables for these beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in need for cognitive closure

This article introduces an individual-difference measure of the need for cognitive closure. As a dispositional construct, the need for cognitive closure is presently treated as a latent variable manifested through several different aspects, namely, desire for predictability, preference for order and structure, discomfort with ambiguity, decisiveness, and close-mindedness. This article presents psychometric work on the measure as well as several validation studies including (a) a "known-groups" discrimination between populations assumed to differ in their need for closure, (b) discriminant and convergent validation with respect to related personality measures, and (c) replication of effects obtained with situational inductions of the need for closure. The present findings suggest that the Need for Closure Scale is a reliable and valid instrument of considerable potential utility in future "motivated social cognition" research.     

Correction to Perfect et al. (2011).

Reports an error in "Eye closure reduces the cross-modal memory impairment caused by auditory distraction" by Timothy J. Perfect, Jackie Andrade and Irene Eagan (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2011[Jul], Vol 37[4], 1008-1013). There is an error reported in the Results section on p. 1010. This error is addressed in the correction. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2011-05332-001.) Eyewitnesses instructed to close their eyes during retrieval recall more correct and fewer incorrect visual and auditory details. This study tested whether eye closure causes these effects through a reduction in environmental distraction. Sixty participants watched a staged event before verbally answering questions about it in the presence of auditory distraction or in a quiet control condition. Participants were instructed to close or not close their eyes during recall. Auditory distraction did not affect correct recall, but it increased erroneous recall of visual and auditory details. Instructed eye closure reduced this effect equally for both modalities. The findings support the view that eye closure removes the general resource load of monitoring the environment rather than reducing competition for modality-specific resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The independence of positive and negative affect.

Five studies, with 776 undergraduates and 34 33–85 yr old community residents, investigated the relation beween positive and negative affect. Instruments included the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Eysenck Personality Inventory, and 16PF. In Studies 1 and 2, positive feelings were remembered as being nearly independent of negative feelings in the past year, but the 2 types of affect were moderately negatively correlated for the past month. In Studies 3 and 5, Ss completed daily mood reports for 70 and 30 days, respectively. In Study 4, Ss completed 3-wk, daily, and moment mood reports and also filled out reports when they experienced strong emotions. The principal finding was that the relation between positive and negative affect differed greatly depending on the time frame. The strongest negative correlation between the 2 affects occurred during emotional times. The correlation decreased in a linear fashion as the time span covered increased logarithmically. It appears that positive and negative affect are independent in terms of how much people feel in their lives over longer time periods. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thinking and caring about cognitive inconsistency: When and for whom does attitudinal ambivalence feel uncomfortable?

The relation between conflicting evaluations of attitude objects (potential ambivalence) and associated unpleasant feelings (felt ambivalence) was investigated. Participants indicated their potential and felt ambivalence about capital punishment (Studies 1 and 2) and abortion (Studies 1-3). The simultaneous accessibility (J. N. Bassili, 1996) of participants' potential ambivalence (i.e., how quickly and equally quickly conflicting evaluations came to mind) was measured using response latency (Studies 1-3) and manipulated by repeated expression (Study 3). The relation between potential ambivalence and felt ambivalence was strongest when potential ambivalence was high in simultaneous accessibility (Studies 1-3). This pattern was most pronounced for participants who were high in preference for consistency (Study 3; R. B. Cialdini, M. R. Trost, & T. J. Newsom, 1995). Similarities of ambivalence and cognitive dissonance constructs are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Interpersonal Effects of Emotions in Negotiations: A Motivated Information Processing Approach.

Three experiments tested a motivated information processing account of the interpersonal effects of anger and happiness in negotiations. In Experiment 1, participants received information about the opponent's emotion (anger, happiness, or none) in a computer-mediated negotiation. As predicted, they conceded more to an angry opponent than to a happy one (controls falling in between), but only when they had a low (rather than a high) need for cognitive closure. Experiment 2 similarly showed that participants were only affected by the other's emotion under low rather than high time pressure, because time pressure reduced their degree of information processing. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that negotiators were only influenced by their opponent's emotion if they had low (rather than high) power. These results support the motivated information processing model by showing that negotiators are only affected by their opponent's emotions if they are motivated to consider them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)