Malleability of the self: electrophysiological correlates of the enfacement illusion.

Self-face representation is fundamentally important for self-identity and self-consciousness. Given its role in preserving identity over time, self-face processing is considered as a robust and stable process. Yet, recent studies indicate that simple psychophysics manipulations may change how we process our own face.

Need for Cognitive Closure Modulates How Perceptual Decisions Are Affected by Task Difficulty and Outcome Relevance.

The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which Need for Cognitive Closure (NCC), an individual-level epistemic motivation, can explain inter-individual variability in the cognitive effort invested on a perceptual decision making task (the random motion task). High levels of NCC are manifested in a preference for clarity, order and structure and a desire for firm and stable knowledge. The study evaluated how NCC moderates the impact of two variables known to increase the amount of cognitive effort invested on a task, namely task ambiguity (i.

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.

'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.

Routes of motivation: stable psychological dispositions are associated with dynamic changes in cortico-cortical functional connectivity.

The present study provides a neurobiological framework to the theory of epistemic motivation that has been extensively studied for the last three decades in the domain of social cognition. Epistemic motivations affect the way people generate and validate hypotheses, and ultimately form and modify knowledge. Strong dispositional measures such as need for cognitive closure (NCC), the desire for a quick firm answer (any answer) to a question, show gross and stable inter-individual differences.

Framing political messages to fit the audience's regulatory orientation: how to improve the efficacy of the same message content.

This research investigates how the impact of persuasive messages in the political domain can be improved when fit is created by subliminally priming recipients' regulatory focus (either promotion or prevention) and by linguistic framing of the message (either strategic approach framing or strategic avoidance framing). Results of two studies show that regulatory fit: a) increases the impact of a political message favoring nuclear energy on implicit attitudes of the target audience (Study 1); and b) induces a more positive evaluation of, and intentions to vote for, the political candidate who is delivering a message concerning immigration policies (Study 2).

Cultural Differences in Attitudes Toward Action and Inaction: The Role of Dialecticism.

The current research examined whether nations differ in their attitudes toward action and inaction. It was anticipated that members of dialectical East Asian societies would show a positive association in their attitudes toward action/inaction. However, members of non-dialectical European-American societies were expected to show a negative association in their attitudes toward action/inaction.

The energetics of motivated cognition: a force-field analysis.

A force-field theory of motivated cognition is presented and applied to a broad variety of phenomena in social judgment and self-regulation. Purposeful cognitive activity is assumed to be propelled by a driving force and opposed by a restraining force. Potential driving force represents the maximal amount of energy an individual is prepared to invest in a cognitive activity.

Regulatory fit effects on perceived fiscal exchange and tax compliance.

Paying taxes can be considered a contribution to the welfare of a society. But even though tax payments are redistributed to citizens in the form of public goods and services, taxpayers often do not perceive many benefits from paying taxes. Information campaigns about the use of taxes for financing public goods and services could increase taxpayers' understanding of the importance of taxes, strengthen their perception of fiscal exchange and consequently also increase tax compliance.

Now you see it, now you don't: interests, issues, and psychological distance in integrative negotiation.

Negotiators are often advised to seek win-win agreements by focusing on interests (primary features) rather than issues (secondary features), but whether such advice is valid remains to be seen. Consistent with construal level theory (Y. Trope & N.

The perfect mix: regulatory complementarity and the speed-accuracy balance in group performance.

In this research, we varied the composition of 4-member groups. One third of the groups consisted exclusively of "locomotors," individuals predominantly oriented toward action. Another third of the groups consisted exclusively of "assessors," individuals predominantly oriented toward evaluation.

Framing of information on the use of public finances, regulatory fit of recipients and tax compliance.

Information campaigns to increase tax compliance could be framed in different ways. They can either highlight the potential gains when tax compliance is high, or the potential losses when compliance is low. According to regulatory focus theory, such framing should be most effective when it is congruent with the promotion or prevention focus of its recipients.

Groups as epistemic providers: need for closure and the unfolding of group-centrism.

Theory and research are presented relating the need for cognitive closure to major facets of group behavior. It is suggested that a high need for closure, whether it is based on members' disposition or the situation, contributes to the emergence of a behavioral syndrome describable as group-centrism--a pattern that includes pressures to opinion uniformity, encouragement of autocratic leadership, in-group favoritism, rejection of deviates, resistance to change, conservatism, and the perpetuation of group norms. These theoretical predictions are borne out by laboratory and field research in diverse settings.

Autocracy bias in informal groups under need for closure.

Two experiments investigated the tendency of groups with members under high (vs. low) need for cognitive closure to develop an autocratic leadership structure in which some members dominate the discussion, constitute the "hubs" of communication, and influence the group more than other members. The first experiment found that high (vs.

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.

Relevance override: on the reduced impact of "cues" under high-motivation conditions of persuasion studies.

This research addressed the reduced impact of cues under high processing motivation of persuasion experiments. The results of 3 studies suggested that such reduced impact is due to a relevance override whereby any more subjectively relevant information swamps the effects of any less subjectively relevant information, given the recipient's sufficient motivation to process both. Because, in much persuasion research, cues may have been perceived as less relevant to the attitudinal judgments than message arguments, the relevance override hypothesis provides a general explanation of the reduced cue effect.

When similarity breeds content: need for closure and the allure of homogeneous and self-resembling groups.

Four studies explored the relation between members' need for cognitive closure and their feelings toward groups. It was found that high (vs. low) need for closure individuals liked in-groups and out-groups more as function of the degree to which their membership was perceived as homogeneous (Studies 1-4), provided it was also self-similar (Studies 3 and 4).

The statistical analysis of data from small groups.

The authors elaborate the complications and the opportunities inherent in the statistical analysis of small-group data. They begin by discussing nonindependence of group members' scores and then consider standard methods for the analysis of small-group data and determine that these methods do not take into account this nonindependence. A new method is proposed that uses multilevel modeling and allows for negative nonindependence and mutual influence.

A cross-cultural study of the Need for Cognitive Closure Scale: comparing its structure in Croatia, Italy, USA and The Netherlands.

This study was designed to compare the factor structure of Need for Closure Scale (NFCS) as it emerges from three European samples (Croatia, Italy and The Netherlands) to the structure emerging from a USA sample, and to test the invariance of the structure of the scale both across three European contexts and across European and US samples. This comparison was conducted to examine the generalizability of results obtained with the NFCS across cultures. The sample sizes employed in this study range from 201 (Croatia) to 418 (Italy) participants.