Abstract

Need for Cognitive Closure, a construct derived from the theoretical framework of Lay Epistemology (Kruglanski, 1980; De Grada & Mannetti, 1992), is ipothesized to positively relate to individual's reactions to violations of everyday norms. Two hundred and four undergraduates of different majors at University of Naples, participated on voluntary basis to the study. Eighty six of them were males and 118 were females: their average age was 23 years. Need for Cognitive Closure was measured by the Italian version (Pierro et al., 1995) of Webster & Kruglanski's scale (1994) and reactions to normative violations were measured by the Italian version (De Grada et al., 1984) of Pepitone's scale (1981) of response to normative violations. A structural equation model with Need for Cognitive Closure as latent exogenous variable and the two measures of reaction to normative violations as endogenous variables showed a god fit to the data. Results are discussed with reference to the theory of cognitive closure.