Need for cognition

Last updated
Need for Cognition is associated with deep thought The Thinker Rodin Phila.JPG
Need for Cognition is associated with deep thought

The need for cognition (NFC), in psychology, is a personality variable reflecting the extent to which individuals are inclined towards effortful cognitive activities. [1] [2]

Contents

Need for cognition has been variously defined as "a need to structure relevant situations in meaningful, integrated ways" and "a need to understand and make reasonable the experiential world". [3] Higher NFC is associated with increased appreciation of debate, idea evaluation, and problem solving. Those with a high need for cognition may be inclined towards high elaboration. Those with a lower need for cognition may display the opposite tendencies, and may process information more heuristically, often through low elaboration. [4]

Need for cognition is closely related to the five factor model domain openness to experience, typical intellectual engagement, and epistemic curiosity (see below).

History

Cohen, Stotland and Wolfe (1955), [3] in their work on individual differences in cognitive motivation, identified a "need for cognition" which they defined as "the individual's need to organize his experience meaningfully", the "need to structure relevant situations in meaningful, integrated ways", and "need to understand and make reasonable the experiential world" (p. 291). They argued that, if this "need" were frustrated, it would generate "feelings of tension and deprivation" that would instigate "active efforts to structure the situation and increase understanding" (p. 291), though the particular situations arousing and satisfying the need may vary (p. 291). Cohen argued that even in structured situations, people high in NFC see ambiguity and strive for higher standards of cognitive clarity.

Cohen and colleagues [3] [5] themselves identified multiple prior identifications of need for cognition, citing works by Murphy, Maslow, Katz, Harlow and Asch. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] They [3] distinguished their concept from the apparently similar "intolerance of ambiguity" proposed by Frenkel-Brunswik, [11] arguing that NFC does not reflect the need to experience an integrated and meaningful world. Contemporary research suggests that Cohen's conception of need is, however, closer to tolerance of ambiguity, need for structure, or need for cognitive closure than to current ideas of need for cognition. For instance, studies using Cohen's measures indicated avoidance of ambiguity and a need to get "meaning" even if this meant relying on heuristics or expert advice rather than careful scrutiny of incoming information. [12]

Building on this work, Cacioppo therefore moved away from drive-reduction toward measuring individual differences in the self-reward potential of cognitive activity, [13] : 988  stressing (p. 118) that they were using the word need in the statistical sense of a "likelihood or tendency", rather than in the rudimentary biological sense of "tissue deprivation", they defined the need for cognition as an individual's tendency to "engage in and enjoy thinking" (p. 116) and the tendency to "organize, abstract, and evaluate information" (p. 124)—or, variously, as a stable, but individually different "tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive endeavors", or an "intrinsic motivation to engage in effortful cognitive endeavors... and exercise their mental faculties", [12] : 197  or an "intrinsic motivation for effortful thought". [13] : 997 

Cacioppo and Petty (1982) created their own 34-item scale to measure the need for cognition. Two years later, an 18-item version was published [14] and in most of the cases reported in the subsequent literature it is this amended scale that is administered. Recently, a 6-item version of the need for cognition scale was proposed that is comparable to the 18-item scale in terms of validity and reliability. [15]

Features

People high in the need for cognition are more likely to form their attitudes by paying close attention to relevant arguments (i.e., via the central route to persuasion), whereas people low in the need for cognition are more likely to rely on peripheral cues, such as how attractive or credible a speaker is. People low in need for cognition are also more likely to rely on stereotypes alone in judging other people than those high in need for cognition. [16]

Psychological research on the need for cognition has been conducted using self-report tests, where research participants answered a series of statements such as "I prefer my life to be filled with puzzles that I must solve" and were scored on how much they felt the statements represented them. The results have suggested that people who are high in the need for cognition scale score slightly higher in verbal intelligence tests but no higher in abstract reasoning tests. [12]

Research has concluded that individuals high in NFC are less likely to attribute higher social desirability to more attractive individuals or to mates. [17] College students high in NFC report higher life satisfaction. [18]

A study on lucid dreaming found that frequent and occasional lucid dreamers scored higher on NFC than non-lucid dreamers. [16] [19] This suggests there is continuity between waking and dreaming cognitive styles. Researchers have argued that this is because self-reflectiveness or self-focused attention is heightened in lucid dreams and also is associated with greater need for cognition.

Relationship to intelligence

A number of studies have found moderate correlations between NFC and measures of verbal intelligence. One study found that need for cognition had a moderate positive correlation with fluid intelligence (reasoning ability, particularly verbal, and to a lesser extent numeric and figural reasoning), and a weaker correlation with crystallised intelligence (knowledge), which had much smaller positive correlations. [20]

Dual-system theory

NFC has been incorporated into Epstein's dual-system theory of personality called cognitive-experiential self-theory. [16] The theory proposes that people have two information processing systems, a rational system and an experiential system. The rational system is thought to be logical, verbal and relatively unemotional. The experiential system is thought to be intuitive, based on images and highly reliant on emotion. A modified version of the Need for Cognition scale has been used to assess individual differences in the rational system, whereas the experiential system has been assessed using a scale called Faith in Intuition.

Research shows that the two systems are uncorrelated and hence independent of each other. That is individuals either high or low in need for cognition may also make use of their intuitions in forming judgments. In fact, individuals high and low in need for cognition respectively may make use of their intuitions in differing ways. When individuals give little thought to their judgments these judgments may be influenced directly by emotions, intuitions, and images in an automatic way. On the other hand, those who are high in need for cognition tend to give more thought to their judgments, and the thoughts generated may be indirectly biased by their emotions, intuitions, and images. Hence individuals high in need for cognition are not necessarily more "rational" than those low in this trait, if their faith in intuition is also high. Rather, their "irrational" intuitions tend to be given more thoughtful elaboration than those who are low in need for cognition and yet also high in faith in intuition. [16]

Biases and decision making

NFC is associated with the amount of thought that goes into making a decision. Both high and low levels of the trait may be associated with particular biases in judgment. People low in need for cognition tend to show more bias when this bias is due to relying on mental shortcuts, that is, heuristic biases. People high in this trait tend to be more affected by biases that are generated by effortful thought. [16]

False memories

High need for cognition is associated with a greater susceptibility to the creation of false memories associated with certain learning tasks. In a commonly used research paradigm, participants are asked to memorise a list of related words. Recognition is tested by having them pick out learned words from a set of studied and non-studied items. Certain non-studied items are conceptually related to studied items (e.g., chair if the original list contained table and legs). People high in NFC are more likely to show false memory for these lures, due to their greater elaboration of learned items in memory as they are more likely to think of semantically related (but non-studied) items. [16]

Halo effects

A bias associated with low need for cognition is the halo effect, a phenomenon in which attractive or likeable people tend to be rated as superior on a variety of other characteristics (e.g., intelligence). People low on NFC are more likely to rely on stereotypes rather than individual features of a person when rating a novel target. People high in NFC still show a halo effect, however, albeit a smaller one, perhaps because their thoughts about the target are still biased by the target's attractiveness. [16]

Relationship with personality traits

NFC has been found to be strongly associated with a number of independently developed constructs, specifically epistemic curiosity, typical intellectual engagement, and openness to ideas. [21]

Typical intellectual engagement was proposed by Goff and Ackerman (1992) and was defined as a "personality construct that represents an individual's aversion or attraction to tasks that are intellectually taxing". [21]

Based on the very large positive correlation between NFC and typical intellectual engagement (r = .78) it has been argued that they may be essentially the same construct. [22]
The author of this study argued that although the four constructs lack discriminant validity they are not necessarily all conceptually equivalent as each one may emphasise particular aspects of functioning more than others.
For example, NFC was more strongly correlated with emotional stability and activity than openness to ideas, whereas openness to ideas was more strongly correlated with novelty and experience seeking than NFC. [20]

Other personality characteristics

Consumers

Research has shown that high-need-for-cognition consumers prefer open-ended comparative advertising that allows consumers to decide which brand is best. [27]

NFC has also offered insights into how people respond to alternative web site designs. Martin, Sherrard and Wentzel (2005) demonstrate that high-need for cognition people prefer web sites with high verbal complexity (more in-depth information) and low visual complexity (static images rather than animations). [28]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Cacioppo, John T.; Petty, Richard E. (1982). "The need for cognition". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 42 (1): 116–131. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.42.1.116.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. ↑ Cacioppo, Rodriguez; Petty, John T.; Kao, Richard E.; Feng, Chuan; Regina (1986). "Central and peripheral routes to persuasion: An individual difference perspective". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 51 (5): 1032–1043. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.51.5.1032.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Cohen, A.R.; Stotland, E.; Wolfe, D.M. (1955). "An Experimental Investigation of Need for Cognition". Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 51 (2): 291–294. doi:10.1037/h0042761. PMID   13263045.
  4. ↑ Dole, J.A.; Sinatra, G.M. (1998). "Reconceptualizing Change in the Cognitive Construction of Knowledge". Educational Psychologist. 33 (2–3): 109–128. doi:10.1080/00461520.1998.9653294.
  5. ↑ Cohen, A.R. (1957). "Need for Cognition and Order of Communication as Determinants of Opinion Change," 79–97. In Hovland, C.I. (ed.), The Order of Presentation in Persuasion, Yale University Press, (New Haven).
  6. ↑ Murphy, G. Personality. New York: Harper, 1947
  7. ↑ Maslow, A.H. "A theory of human motivation". Psychol. Rev. 1943 (50): 370–396.
  8. ↑ Katz, D.; Sarnoff, I. (1954). "Motivational bases of attitude change". J. Abnorm. Soc. Psychol. 1954 (49): 115–124. doi:10.1037/h0057453. PMID   13128972.
  9. ↑ Harlow, H.F.; Harlow, M.K.; Meyer, D. (1950). "Learning motivated by a manipulation drive". J. Exp. Psychol. 1950 (40): 228–234. doi:10.1037/h0056906. PMID   15415520.
  10. ↑ Asch, S.E. Social Psychology. New York, Prentice-Hall, 1952".
  11. ↑ Frenkel-Brunswik, E (1949). "Intolerance of ambiguity as an emotional and perceptual personality variable". J. Pers. 18 (3): 108–143. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1949.tb01236.x. PMID   4833114.
  12. 1 2 3 Cacioppo, John T.; Petty, Richard E.; Feinstein, Jeffrey A.; Jarvis, W. Blair G. (March 1996). "Dispositional Differences in Cognitive Motivation: The Life and Times of Individuals Varying in Need for Cognition". Psychological Bulletin. 119 (2): 197–253. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.119.2.197.
  13. 1 2 Thompson, E.P.; Chaiken, S.; Hazlewood, J.D. (1993). "Need for Cognition and Desire for Control as Moderators of Extrinsic Reward Effects: A Person × Situation Approach to the Study of Intrinsic Motivation". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 64 (6): 987–999. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.64.6.987. PMID   8326474.
  14. ↑ Cacioppo, J.T.; Petty, R.E.; Kao, C.F. (1984). "The Efficient Assessment of Need for Cognition". Journal of Personality Assessment. 48 (3): 306–307. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4803_13. PMID   16367530.
  15. 1 2 Lins de Holanda Coelho, Gabriel; H. P. Hanel, Paul; J. Wolf, Lukas (2018-08-10). "The Very Efficient Assessment of Need for Cognition: Developing a Six-Item Version". Assessment. 27 (8): 1870–1885. doi: 10.1177/1073191118793208 . ISSN   1073-1911. PMC   7545655 . PMID   30095000.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Petty, Richard E.; Briñol, P; Loersch, C.; McCaslin, M.J. (2009). "Chapter 21. The Need for Cognition". In Leary, Mark R.; Hoyle, Rick H. (eds.). Handbook of Individual Differences in Social behavior. New York/London: The Guilford Press. pp. 318–329. ISBN   978-1-59385-647-2.
  17. ↑ Perlini, Arthur H.; Hansen, Samantha (2001). "Moderating effects of need for cognition on attractiveness stereotyping". Social Behavior and Personality. 29 (4): 313–321. doi:10.2224/sbp.2001.29.4.313. S2CID   142569446.
  18. ↑ The need for cognition and life satisfaction among college students
  19. ↑ Blagrove, M; Hartnell, S.J. (2000). "Lucid dreaming: associations with internal locus of control, need for cognition and creativity" (PDF). Personality and Individual Differences. 28: 41–47. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00078-1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fleischhauer, M.; Enge, S.; Brocke, B.; Ullrich, J.; Strobel, A.; Strobel, A. (2009). "Same or Different? Clarifying the Relationship of Need for Cognition to Personality and Intelligence". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 36 (1): 82–96. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.1026.1579 . doi:10.1177/0146167209351886. PMID   19901274. S2CID   28728034.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 Mussell, Patrick (2010). "Epistemic curiosity and related constructs: Lacking evidence of discriminant validity". Personality and Individual Differences. 49 (5): 506–510. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.05.014.
  22. ↑ Woo, S.E.; Harms, P.D.; Kuncel, N.R (2007). "Integrating personality and intelligence: Typical intellectual engagement and need for cognition". Personality and Individual Differences. 43 (6): 1635–1639. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.04.022. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 2011-12-12.
  23. ↑ Sadowski, Cyril J.; Cogburn, Helen E. (1997). "Need for Cognition in the Big-Five Factor Structure". The Journal of Psychology. 131 (3): 307–312. doi:10.1080/00223989709603517.
  24. ↑ Pacini, R; Epstein, S (1999). "The relation of rational and experiential information processing styles to personality, basic beliefs, and the ratio-bias phenomenon". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 76 (6): 972–87. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.76.6.972. PMID   10402681.
  25. 1 2 Osberg, Timothy M. (1987). "The Convergent and Discriminant Validity of the Need for Cognition Scale". Journal of Personality Assessment. 51 (3): 441–450. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa5103_11. PMID   16372844.
  26. ↑ Phares, E.J.; Chaplin, W.F. (1997). "Chapter 15. Personality and Intellect" . Introduction to personality (Fourth ed.). New York: Longman. p.  521. ISBN   978-0-673-99456-1.
  27. ↑ Martin, Brett A. S.; Lang, Bodo; Wong, Stephanie (2004). "Conclusion Explicitness in Advertising: The Moderating Role of Need for Cognition and Argument Quality" (PDF). Journal of Advertising. 32 (4): 57–65. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.506.5890 . doi:10.1080/00913367.2003.10639148. S2CID   140844572. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-07-28. Retrieved 2012-07-07.
  28. ↑ Martin, Brett A. S.; Sherrard, Michael J.; Wentzel, Daniel (2005). "The Role of Sensation Seeking and Need for Cognition on Web-Site Evaluations: A Resource-Matching Perspective" (PDF). Psychology and Marketing. 22 (2): 109–126. doi:10.1002/mar.20050. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-07-28. Retrieved 2012-07-07.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human intelligence</span> Human capacity or ability to acquire, apprehend and apply knowledge

Human intelligence is the human capacity or ability to acquire, apprehend and apply knowledge. It is marked by complex cognitive and intellectual feats, and high levels of motivation, creativity and self-awareness.

Closure or need for closure (NFC), used interchangeably with need for cognitive closure (NFCC), are social psychological terms that describe an individual's desire for a clear, firm answer or peaceful resolution to a question or problem to avert ambiguity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cognitive dissonance</span> Stress from contradictory beliefs

In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things. According to this theory, when two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person's belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.

In social psychology, fundamental attribution error, also known as correspondence bias or attribution effect, is a cognitive attribution bias where observers underemphasize situational and environmental factors for the behavior of an actor while overemphasizing dispositional or personality factors. In other words, observers tend to overattribute the behaviors of others to their personality and underattribute them to the situation or context. Although personality traits and predispositions are considered to be observable facts in psychology, the fundamental attribution error is an error because it misinterprets their effects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social cognition</span> Study of cognitive processes involved in social interactions

Social cognition is a topic within psychology that focuses on how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations. It focuses on the role that cognitive processes play in social interactions.

The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion is a dual process theory describing the change of attitudes. The ELM was developed by Richard E. Petty and John Cacioppo in 1980. The model aims to explain different ways of processing stimuli, why they are used, and their outcomes on attitude change. The ELM proposes two major routes to persuasion: the central route and the peripheral route.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confidence</span> State of trusting that a belief or course of action is correct

Confidence is the state of being clear-headed: either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct, or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. Confidence comes from the Latin word fidere which means "to trust". In contrast, arrogance or hubris is a state of unmerited confidence—belief lacking evidence and/or a reason. Overconfidence or presumptuousness is excessive belief in success without regard for potential failure. Confidence can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, as those without it may fail because they lack it, and those with it may succeed because they have it rather than because of an innate ability or skill.

Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field devoted to understanding the relationship between social experiences and biological systems. Humans are fundamentally a social species, rather than solitary. As such, Homo sapiens create emergent organizations beyond the individual—structures that range from dyads, families, and groups to cities, civilizations, and cultures. In this regard, studies indicate that various social influences, including life events, poverty, unemployment and loneliness can influence health related biomarkers. The term "social neuroscience" can be traced to a publication entitled "Social Neuroscience Bulletin" which was published quarterly between 1988 and 1994. The term was subsequently popularized in an article by John Cacioppo and Gary Berntson, published in the American Psychologist in 1992. Cacioppo and Berntson are considered as the legitimate fathers of social neuroscience. Still a young field, social neuroscience is closely related to affective neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience, focusing on how the brain mediates social interactions. The biological underpinnings of social cognition are investigated in social cognitive neuroscience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affect (psychology)</span> Experience of feeling or emotion

Affect, in psychology, refers to the underlying experience of feeling, emotion, attachment, or mood.

In psychology, a dual process theory provides an account of how thought can arise in two different ways, or as a result of two different processes. Often, the two processes consist of an implicit (automatic), unconscious process and an explicit (controlled), conscious process. Verbalized explicit processes or attitudes and actions may change with persuasion or education; though implicit process or attitudes usually take a long amount of time to change with the forming of new habits. Dual process theories can be found in social, personality, cognitive, and clinical psychology. It has also been linked with economics via prospect theory and behavioral economics, and increasingly in sociology through cultural analysis.

Openness to experience is one of the domains which are used to describe human personality in the Five Factor Model. Openness involves six facets, or dimensions: active imagination (fantasy), aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety (adventurousness), intellectual curiosity, and challenging authority. A great deal of psychometric research has demonstrated that these facets or qualities are significantly correlated. Thus, openness can be viewed as a global personality trait consisting of a set of specific traits, habits, and tendencies that cluster together.

The negativity bias, also known as the negativity effect, is a cognitive bias that, even when of equal intensity, things of a more negative nature have a greater effect on one's psychological state and processes than neutral or positive things. In other words, something very positive will generally have less of an impact on a person's behavior and cognition than something equally emotional but negative. The negativity bias has been investigated within many different domains, including the formation of impressions and general evaluations; attention, learning, and memory; and decision-making and risk considerations.

In psychology, the human mind is considered to be a cognitive miser due to the tendency of humans to think and solve problems in simpler and less effortful ways rather than in more sophisticated and effortful ways, regardless of intelligence. Just as a miser seeks to avoid spending money, the human mind often seeks to avoid spending cognitive effort. The cognitive miser theory is an umbrella theory of cognition that brings together previous research on heuristics and attributional biases to explain when and why people are cognitive misers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John T. Cacioppo</span> American academic

John Terrence Cacioppo was the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He founded the University of Chicago Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience and was the director of the Arete Initiative of the Office of the Vice President for Research and National Laboratories at the University of Chicago. He co-founded the field of social neuroscience and was member of the department of psychology, department of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience, and the college until his death in March 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typical intellectual engagement</span>

Typical intellectual engagement (TIE) is a personality construct referring to a person's enjoyment of intellectually demanding activities. TIE was developed to identify aspects of personality most closely related to intelligence and knowledge and measures a person's typical performance in intellectual domains rather than their maximal performance. TIE is moderately positively associated with crystallized intelligence, and with general knowledge, and predicts academic performance. TIE is hard to distinguish from the earlier construct need for cognition and is positively correlated with openness to experience.

Cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST) is a dual-process model of perception developed by Seymour Epstein. CEST is based around the idea that people operate using two separate systems for information processing: analytical-rational and intuitive-experiential. The analytical-rational system is deliberate, slow, and logical. The intuitive-experiential system is fast, automatic, and emotionally driven. These are independent systems that operate in parallel and interact to produce behavior and conscious thought.

Intelligence and personality have traditionally been studied as separate entities in psychology, but more recent work has increasingly challenged this view. An increasing number of studies have recently explored the relationship between intelligence and personality, in particular the Big Five personality traits.

Intellectual curiosity is curiosity that leads to an acquisition of general knowledge. It can include curiosity about such things as what objects are composed of, the underlying mechanisms of systems, mathematical relationships, languages, social norms, and history. It can be differentiated from another type of curiosity that does not lead to the acquisition of general knowledge, such as curiosity about the intimate secrets of other people. It is a facet of openness to experience in the Five Factor Model used to describe human personalities. It is similar to need for cognition and typical intellectual engagement.

Epistemic motivation is the desire to develop and maintain a rich and thorough understanding of a situation, utilizing one's beliefs towards knowledge and the process of building knowledge. A learner's motivation towards knowledge as an object influences their knowledge acquisition. In interpersonal relations, epistemic motivation is the desire to process information thoroughly, and thus grasp the meaning behind other people's emotions. In group settings, epistemic motivation can be defined as participants' willingness to expend effort to achieve a thorough, rich, and accurate understanding of the world, including the group task, or decision problem at hand, and the degree to which group members tend to systematically process and disseminate information.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.