Motivated Cognition and Group Interaction: Need for Closure Affects the Contents and Processes of Collective Negotiations

Abstract

Two studies investigated need for cognitive closure effects on group interaction. In both, participants in four-person groups role-played the members of a corporate committee dividing a monetary reward among meritorious employees. The entire interaction sequence was videotaped and content-analyzed by independent observers. Study 1 investigated need for closure as both a dispositional and a situational variable (induced via time pressure). Bales' (1970) interaction process analysis (IPA) yielded that both forms of this need were positively related to the preponderance of task-oriented responses and negatively related to the preponderance of positive social–emotional acts. Study 2 compared groups composed of members high on a dispositional need for closure with those composed of members low on this need. In the discussions of high (vs low) need for closure groups, there were greater conformity pressures and a less egalitarian participation. Need for closure thus appears to affect both the contents of member responses in a group context and the process whereby group interaction may unfold.

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