The Mediating Role of Dogmatism in the Relationship of Need For Closure and Intellectual Humility
Keywords:
need for closure, intellectual humility, dogmatism, survey, mediation
Abstract
The role of Intellectual Humility (IH) - an awareness of the limits of one's knowledge - is crucial in fostering meaningful social interactions and dialogues within pluralistic societies. Previous research found that people who need quick answers and avoid ambiguous situations or different opinions (known as individuals with high Need for Closure, or NFC) also have low IH. However, there are also studies that do not find a significant relationship between NFC and IH. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate to what extent NFC could predict IH and whether being dogmatic played a mediating role in the relationship of NFC and IH. We surveyed 232 individuals aged 17–70 years (mean age = 30.69, SD = 10.98, 55.6% female), administering the NFC, IH, and Dogmatism scales. Our mediation analysis, employing PROCESS Model 4, revealed that while NFC did not directly predict IH, it indirectly predicted IH through the full mediation of individual dogmatism. This finding underscores the critical role of dogmatism as a factor that can be targeted to enhance IH. Discussion of the findings of this research will emphasize the importance of a deeper understanding of factors that can reduce dogmatism in the future to improve IH and consequently, the quality of social discourse in pluralistic societies.
References
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Gummer, T., Roßmann, J., & Silber, H. (2021). Using instructed response items as attention checks in web surveys: Properties and implementation. Sociological Methods & Research, 50(1), 238-264. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124118769083
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Heineck, P. M., & Deutsch, R. (2024). Summarized and sequential discrimination-A paradigm for research on the perception of multiple instances of discrimination. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 110, 104548. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2023.104548
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Kossowska, M., Jaśko, K., Bar-Tal, Y., & Szastok, M. (2012). The relationship between need for closure and memory for schema-related information among younger and older adults. Aging, Neuropsychology, and cognition, 19(1-2), 283-300. https://doi.org/10.1080/13825585.2011.632617
Kossowska, M., Dragon, P., & Bukowski, M. (2015). When need for closure leads to positive attitudes towards a negatively stereotyped outgroup. Motivation and Emotion, 39, 88-98. DOI 10.1007/s11031-014-9414-5
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Kruglanski, A. W., Shah, J. Y., Pierro, A., & Mannetti, L. (2002). When similarity breeds content: Need for closure and the allure of homogeneous and self-resembling groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(3), 648–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.3.648
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Lubis, S. I., & Sianipar, A. (2022). How religious tolerance can emerge among religious people: An investigation on the roles of intellectual humility, cognitive flexibility, and trait aggressiveness. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 25(2), 276-287. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12493
McElroy, S. E., Rice, K. G., Davis, D. E., Hook, J. N., Hill, P. C., Worthington Jr, E. L., Van Tongeren, D. R. (2014). Intellectual humility: Scale development and theoretical elaborations in the context of religious leadership. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 42(1), 19-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/009164711404200103
Meade, A. W., & Craig, S. B. (2012). Identifying careless responses in survey data. Psychological methods, 17(3), 437. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028085
Mitchell, R., Parker, V., & Giles, M. (2012). Open-mindedness in diverse team performance: investigating a three-way interaction. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(17), 3652-3672. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.654807
Morosoli, J. J., Barlow, F. K., Colodro-Conde, L., & Medland, S. E. (2022). Genetic and environmental influences on biological essentialism, heuristic thinking, need for closure, and conservative values: insights from a survey and twin study. Behavior Genetics, 52(3), 170-183. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-022-10101-2
Nickerson, R. S. (1998). Confirmation bias: A ubiquitous phenomenon in many guises. Review of general psychology, 2(2), 175-220. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.2.175
Nyhan, B., & Reifler, J. (2010). When corrections fail: The persistence of political misperceptions. Political Behavior, 32(2), 303-330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-010-9112-2
Porter, T., & Schumann, K. (2018). Intellectual humility and openness to the opposing view. Self and Identity, 17(2), 139-162. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2017.1361861
Porter, T., Elnakouri, A., Meyers, E. A., Shibayama, T., Jayawickreme, E., & Grossmann, I. (2022). Predictors and consequences of intellectual humility. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1(9), 524-536. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-022-00081-9
Preston, J. L., & Shin, F. (2017). Spiritual experiences evoke awe through the small self in both religious and non-religious individuals. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 70, 212-221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.11.006
Roberts, R. C., & Wood, W. J. (2007). Intellectual virtues: An essay in regulative epistemology. OUP UK.
Roets, A., & Van Hiel, A. (2011). Item selection and validation of a brief, 15-item version of the Need for Closure Scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(1), 90-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.09.004
Roets, A., Kruglanski, A. W., Kossowska, M., Pierro, A., & Hong, Y. Y. (2015). The motivated gatekeeper of our minds: New directions in need for closure theory and research. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 52, pp. 221-283). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2015.01.001
Rokeach, M. (1954). The nature and meaning of dogmatism. Psychological Review, 61, 194–204. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0060752
Samuelson, P. L., & Church, I. M. (2015). When cognition turns vicious: Heuristics and biases in light of virtue epistemology. Philosophical Psychology, 28(8), 1095-1113. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2014.904197
Saroglou, V. (2002). Beyond dogmatism: The need for closure as related to religion. Mental health, religion & culture, 5(2), 183-194. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674670210144130
Shearman, S. M., & Levine, T. R. (2006). Dogmatism updated: A scale revision and validation. Communication Quarterly, 54(3), 275-291. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463370600877950
Webster, D. M., & Kruglanski, A. W. (1994). Individual differences in need for cognitive closure. Journal of personality and social psychology, 67(6), 1049–1062. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.6.1049
Whitcomb, D., Battaly, H., Baehr, J., Howard-Snyder, D. (2017). Intellectual humility: Owning our limitations. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 94(3), 509-539. doi: 10.1111/phpr.12228
Wong, I. H., & Wong, T. T. (2021). Exploring the relationship between intellectual humility and academic performance among post-secondary students: The mediating roles of learning motivation and receptivity to feedback. Learning and Individual Differences, 88, 102012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2021.102012
Baron, J. (2023). Thinking and deciding. Cambridge University Press.
Davis, D. E., Hook, J. N., Worthington Jr, E. L., Van Tongeren, D. R., Gartner, A. L., Jennings, D. J., & Emmons, R. A. (2011). Relational humility: Conceptualizing and measuring humility as a personality judgment. Journal of Personality Assessment, 93(3), 225-234. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2011.558871
Gregg, A. P., Mahadevan, N., & Sedikides, C. (2017). Intellectual arrogance and intellectual humility: Correlational evidence for an evolutionary-embodied-epistemological account. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(1), 59-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1167942
Gummer, T., Roßmann, J., & Silber, H. (2021). Using instructed response items as attention checks in web surveys: Properties and implementation. Sociological Methods & Research, 50(1), 238-264. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124118769083
Hayes, A. F. (2017). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford publications.
Heineck, P. M., & Deutsch, R. (2024). Summarized and sequential discrimination-A paradigm for research on the perception of multiple instances of discrimination. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 110, 104548. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2023.104548
Hook, J. N., Farrell, J. E., Johnson, K. A., Van Tongeren, D. R., Davis, D. E., & Aten, J. D. (2017). Intellectual humility and religious tolerance. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(1), 29-35. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1167937
Hopkin, C. R., Hoyle, R. H., & Toner, K. (2014). Intellectual humility and reactions to opinions about religious beliefs. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 42(1), 50-61. https://doi.org/10.1177/009164711404200106
Kossowska, M., Jaśko, K., & Bar-Tal, Y. (2012). Need for closure and cognitive structuring among younger and older adults. Polish Psychological Bulletin, 43(1), 40-49. DOI - 10.2478/v10059-012-0005-6
Kossowska, M., Jaśko, K., Bar-Tal, Y., & Szastok, M. (2012). The relationship between need for closure and memory for schema-related information among younger and older adults. Aging, Neuropsychology, and cognition, 19(1-2), 283-300. https://doi.org/10.1080/13825585.2011.632617
Kossowska, M., Dragon, P., & Bukowski, M. (2015). When need for closure leads to positive attitudes towards a negatively stereotyped outgroup. Motivation and Emotion, 39, 88-98. DOI 10.1007/s11031-014-9414-5
Kruglanski, A. W., Pierro, A., Mannetti, L., & De Grada, E. (2006). Groups as epistemic providers: need for closure and the unfolding of group-centrism. Psychological review, 113(1), 84–100. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.113.1.84
Kruglanski, A. W., Shah, J. Y., Pierro, A., & Mannetti, L. (2002). When similarity breeds content: Need for closure and the allure of homogeneous and self-resembling groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(3), 648–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.3.648
Kruglanski, A. W., & Webster, D. M. (2018). Motivated closing of the mind:“Seizing” and “freezing”. The motivated mind, 60-103.
Krumrei-Mancuso, E. J., & Rouse, S. V. (2016). The development and validation of the comprehensive intellectual humility scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 98(2), 209-221. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2015.1068174
Krumrei-Mancuso, E. J., Haggard, M. C., LaBouff, J. P., & Rowatt, W. C. (2020). Links between intellectual humility and acquiring knowledge. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 15(2), 155-170. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2019.1579359
Krumrei-Mancuso, E. J., & Newman, B. (2020). Intellectual humility in the sociopolitical domain. Self and Identity, 19(8), 989-1016. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2020.1714711
Leary, M. R., Diebels, K. J., Davisson, E. K., Jongman-Sereno, K. P., Fossel, M., & Hoyle, R. H. (2017). Cognitive and interpersonal features of intellectual humility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(6), 793-813. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217697695
Leary, M. R. (2018). The psychology of intellectual humility. John Templeton Foundation, 3.
Lubis, S. I., & Sianipar, A. (2022). How religious tolerance can emerge among religious people: An investigation on the roles of intellectual humility, cognitive flexibility, and trait aggressiveness. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 25(2), 276-287. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12493
McElroy, S. E., Rice, K. G., Davis, D. E., Hook, J. N., Hill, P. C., Worthington Jr, E. L., Van Tongeren, D. R. (2014). Intellectual humility: Scale development and theoretical elaborations in the context of religious leadership. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 42(1), 19-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/009164711404200103
Meade, A. W., & Craig, S. B. (2012). Identifying careless responses in survey data. Psychological methods, 17(3), 437. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028085
Mitchell, R., Parker, V., & Giles, M. (2012). Open-mindedness in diverse team performance: investigating a three-way interaction. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(17), 3652-3672. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.654807
Morosoli, J. J., Barlow, F. K., Colodro-Conde, L., & Medland, S. E. (2022). Genetic and environmental influences on biological essentialism, heuristic thinking, need for closure, and conservative values: insights from a survey and twin study. Behavior Genetics, 52(3), 170-183. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-022-10101-2
Nickerson, R. S. (1998). Confirmation bias: A ubiquitous phenomenon in many guises. Review of general psychology, 2(2), 175-220. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.2.175
Nyhan, B., & Reifler, J. (2010). When corrections fail: The persistence of political misperceptions. Political Behavior, 32(2), 303-330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-010-9112-2
Porter, T., & Schumann, K. (2018). Intellectual humility and openness to the opposing view. Self and Identity, 17(2), 139-162. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2017.1361861
Porter, T., Elnakouri, A., Meyers, E. A., Shibayama, T., Jayawickreme, E., & Grossmann, I. (2022). Predictors and consequences of intellectual humility. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1(9), 524-536. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-022-00081-9
Preston, J. L., & Shin, F. (2017). Spiritual experiences evoke awe through the small self in both religious and non-religious individuals. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 70, 212-221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.11.006
Roberts, R. C., & Wood, W. J. (2007). Intellectual virtues: An essay in regulative epistemology. OUP UK.
Roets, A., & Van Hiel, A. (2011). Item selection and validation of a brief, 15-item version of the Need for Closure Scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(1), 90-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.09.004
Roets, A., Kruglanski, A. W., Kossowska, M., Pierro, A., & Hong, Y. Y. (2015). The motivated gatekeeper of our minds: New directions in need for closure theory and research. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 52, pp. 221-283). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2015.01.001
Rokeach, M. (1954). The nature and meaning of dogmatism. Psychological Review, 61, 194–204. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0060752
Samuelson, P. L., & Church, I. M. (2015). When cognition turns vicious: Heuristics and biases in light of virtue epistemology. Philosophical Psychology, 28(8), 1095-1113. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2014.904197
Saroglou, V. (2002). Beyond dogmatism: The need for closure as related to religion. Mental health, religion & culture, 5(2), 183-194. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674670210144130
Shearman, S. M., & Levine, T. R. (2006). Dogmatism updated: A scale revision and validation. Communication Quarterly, 54(3), 275-291. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463370600877950
Webster, D. M., & Kruglanski, A. W. (1994). Individual differences in need for cognitive closure. Journal of personality and social psychology, 67(6), 1049–1062. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.6.1049
Whitcomb, D., Battaly, H., Baehr, J., Howard-Snyder, D. (2017). Intellectual humility: Owning our limitations. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 94(3), 509-539. doi: 10.1111/phpr.12228
Wong, I. H., & Wong, T. T. (2021). Exploring the relationship between intellectual humility and academic performance among post-secondary students: The mediating roles of learning motivation and receptivity to feedback. Learning and Individual Differences, 88, 102012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2021.102012
Published
2024-04-30
Section
Articles
