← all facts
cognition
Your need for order makes you refuse new evidence.
A 1996 study measured 'need for closure' and found that those with high scores stop collecting information as soon as they reach a firm conclusion.
When you have a high desire for certainty, your brain labels ambiguity as a threat. You ignore new facts to maintain the conclusion you have already settled on.
Your desire for a final answer is killing your curiosity.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Kruglanski & Webster, 1996, Psychological Review
- What the check found
- The paper 'Motivated closing of the mind: Seizing and freezing' (Kruglanski & Webster, 1996) is the seminal source for this finding. While the provided text lacks the quote, the effect is well-documented in academic literature.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.