Earlier this year I decided to start using the Affinity News as a way of offering a toolbox of sorts: ideas and concepts that help me make meaning from my engagement with people, places, and institutions. The topic for this month, “The need for cognitive closure,” follows last month’s topic of “Technical vs. Adaptive Challenges,” and precedes next month’s topic of “The Theory of Planned Behavior.”

In this post:

 

Story: Let’s wrap this up

The need for cognitive closure (NFC) is a fancy way of talking about how much information individuals need before they make a decision. When Helen and I first started dating, I would repeatedly tell restaurant wait staff we needed a few more minutes while Helen perused the menu. As our relationship became more familiar, I found the sweet spot where I would simply answer, “Yes” to the question, “Are you ready to order?” While it sometimes put Helen on the spot, she never went without eating. Years later I would come to recognize Helen was simply finding all the available choices outweighed her need for closure. In business systems design parlance, we call that analysis paralysis. Been there, done that.

As my experience and education broadened I picked up many tools for decision support and project planning. As time has gone on I find myself more interested in how people make meaning than the specific tools they use for decision support. Long before I had a definition, I recognized that the amount of information people needed before making a decision varied widely from person to person. I later learned this is referred to as need for cognitive closure (or just need for closure.)

A definition of the need for closure is:

• the state in which an individual recognizes that they have achieved understanding of something.

• the final stage in figuratively seeing the total picture and how all pieces of it fit together. (APA, 2023)

A concept at the heart of the need for cognitive closure is the Ladder of Inference, which I was introduced to through Peter Senge’s book, “The Fifth Discipline.” The ladder is descriptive of how we come to the place of action. By climbing the ladder, we move from observation to acting. Two key steps along the ladder of inference are: making selections and drawing conclusions. These two go hand in hand. We draw conclusions based upon our existing beliefs, assumptions and what we see as relevant. Including more things to pay attention to adds to the complexity of drawing a conclusion. When my kids were little, this became clear quickly as they faced choices. It’s much more efficient to ask, “Would you like a banana or an apple?” Then, “Would you like a banana, apple, grapes, or an orange?”

A recent article in the Washington Post illustrates both the ladder of inference and the need for closure. The article, “All this parenting advice is getting in the way of parenting ” by Caitlin Gibson, talks about how parents can get overwhelmed by the amount of parenting advice available through social media. Some parents find it hard to select what to pay attention to as they sort through the barrage of input. As someone who helped raise two children, I quickly realized that “the right way” to raise children is only relevant if you engage with only one child, for a very short time.

A key to the ladder of inference and to the level of need for closure is observation and selecting what to pay attention to. The more urgent the need to decide, the less time for observation and choice. How a piano looks, sounds, or who played it last doesn’t matter if it is about to land on your head.

At this point in my life, I don’t often get involved in making snap decisions involving limited information. I am much more interested in facilitating groups as they engage in meaning making. There is an inverse relationship between the need for closure and the amount of information that goes into decision making. The higher the need for closure, the more likely important information will be ignored.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. James Baldwin, 1962.

References

• APA Dictionary of Psychology © 2024 American Psychological Association. Retrieved from: https://dictionary.apa.org/cognitive-closure
• Kruglanski, A. W., & Fishman, S. (2009). The need for cognitive closure. In M. R. Leary & R. H. Hoyle (Eds.), Handbook of individual differences in social behavior (pp. 343–353). The Guilford Press.
• Peterson, Richard. November 28, 2023. Understanding the Ladder of Inference: Navigating Cognitive Pitfalls. USC Gould School of Law. Retrieved from: https://gould.usc.edu/news/understanding-the-ladder-of-inference-navigating-cognitive-pitfalls/#:~:text=The%20ladder%20of%20inference%2C%20a,of%20the%20world%20around%20us
• Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. Broadway Business.

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