Editing Closure (psychology) (section)

==Implications==
A need for cognitive closure may occur while engaged in goal-driven or goal-motivated cognitive functions (e.g., attention control, memory recall, information selection and processing, [[cognitive inhibition]], etc.). Ideally, people should attempt to acquire new knowledge to satisfy questions regarding particular issues (specific cognitive closure) irrespective of whether that knowledge points to a conclusion having positive or negative implications for them (non-specific cognitive closure).  But because urgency and permanence are central to the  motivational core of this overall process, individuals (or groups) may be compelled, consciously or unconsciously, to obtain information prematurely and irrespective of content.<ref name="Kruglanski, A. W. 1996"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Webster |first1=Donna M. |first2=Arie W |last2=Kruglanski |date=1997 |title=Cognitive and Social Consequences of the Need for Cognitive Closure |journal=European Review of Social Psychology |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=133–173 |doi=10.1080/14792779643000100}}</ref>

A high need for cognitive closure might then invite bias in:
# selecting the most relevant information one should attend to for increasing chances of adaptation
# initiating and sustaining cognitive manipulations that are required to achieve particular outcomes
# making judgments and assessments of input information
# weighing information during the course of decision-making

For example, the level of NFCC can influence decision-making strategies used by an individual. In a study by Choi et al. that manipulated NFCC, the authors found that a higher NFCC was associated with a preference for using the faster "attribute-based search" which involves examining all available alternatives on one attribute and then moving on to the next attribute. Individuals with a lower NFCC, in contrast, used the "alternative-based search", such that they examine all attributes of one alternative, then move on to the next alternative. Thus, studying NFCC has huge implications for consumer buying behavior.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Choi |first1=J. |last2=Koo |first2=M. |last3=Choi |first3=I. |last4=Auh |first4=S. |date=November 2008 |title=Need for cognitive closure and information search strategy |journal=Psychology & Marketing |volume=25 |issue=11 |pages=1027–1042 |doi=10.1002/mar.20253}}</ref>

Need for closure has also been found to have a role in race- and gender-based prejudice. Roets describes a conceptual fit between Allport's "motivated cognitive style" of individuals who exhibit prejudice and Kruglanksi and Webster's concept of high-NFCC individuals, such that both display urgency tendency i.e. the desire for quick, definite answers and permanence tendency i.e., the perseverance of the obtained answer in spite of contradictory information. Thus, NFC provides a strong empirical base for Allport's hypothesized underlying cognitive style of prejudiced individuals.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Roets |first1=Arne |last2=Van Hiel |first2=Alain |date=December 2011 |title=Allport's Prejudiced Personality Today: Need for Closure as the Motivated Cognitive Basis of Prejudice |journal=Current Directions in Psychological Science |volume=20 |issue=6 |pages=349–354 |doi=10.1177/0963721411424894|hdl=1854/LU-2109466 |s2cid=96427663 |url=https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/2109466 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
 
A high need also induces the tendency to form knowledge more quickly, tying into other concepts, such as a tendency to prefer  autocracy i.e. "hard" forms of influence that motivate the targets to comply with the agents' demands quickly via the promise of positive consequences or the threat of negative consequences, rather than "soft" forms of influence that might use extended argumentation or persuasion.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pierro |first1=A. |last2=Kruglanski |first2=A. W. |last3=Raven, B. H. |date=February 2012 |title=Motivational underpinnings of social influence in work settings: Bases of social power and the need for cognitive closure |journal=European Journal of Social Psychology |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=41–52 |doi=10.1002/ejsp.836}}</ref>

Additionally, and especially in those with strong needs for certainty (as measured on NFC Scale), the impulse to achieve cognitive closure may sometimes produce or evoke a mood instability, and/or truncated perceptions of one's available behavioral choices, should some newly acquired information challenge preconceptions that they had long considered to be certain, permanent and inviolate e.g. certain religious or ethical views and values.

Thus it is apparent that the need for cognitive closure may have important implications for both personal and inter-personal thoughts and actions, including some related to educational processes and school learning.