Abstract

Investigated the relationship between need for cognitive closure (nfc) and intolerance toward perceptual ambiguity. We hypothesized more intolerance toward ambiguity with more need for closure. Intolerance toward ambiguity has been operationalized as the time required to revert some multistable figures and the number of errors totalized in doing this. We choosed this task on the basis of the research conducted by Frenkel-Brunswick (1949) who found a direct relationship between mental rigidity and social prejudices and intolerance toward ambiguity. This study has been conducted with 65 university-students, mean age 20 years. Results confirmed our hypothesis: we found an increase of the response time and of the number of errors at the increasing of the dispositional and situational nfc of the subjects. Moreover, the situational induction of the nfc (noise) affect more the subjects with high dispositional nfc than the subjects with low dispositional nfc. On the basis of our results, it seems to us that the action of the nfc overcomes the reference to simple or particular contents (attitudes, representations, etc.), to affect the overall organizational and structural good order of our believe and process system.