Need for Cognition Scale — Short Form

What it measures

Measures the tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activity. High need for cognition individuals spontaneously engage in elaborative thinking, seek out complex information, and process messages centrally rather than peripherally. Central to the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion. The NCS-18 is the 18-item short form of the original 34-item Need for Cognition Scale (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982); it was developed by Cacioppo, Petty, and Kao (1984) to provide a briefer measure suitable for surveys where the full 34-item version is impractical. It retains the same unidimensional structure and shows high convergent validity with the full scale (r > .95 in most samples). Use the NCS-18 when brevity is required; use the full 34-item NCS (see NFC, ID 444) when maximum reliability is needed or when the scale is a primary construct of interest.

Representative items

• I prefer complex to simple problems.
• I like to have the responsibility of handling a situation that requires a lot of thinking.
• Thinking is not my idea of fun. (R)
• I would prefer a task that is intellectual, difficult, and important to one that is somewhat important but does not require much thinking.
• I find satisfaction in deliberating hard and for long hours.

Citation

Cacioppo, J.T., Petty, R.E., & Kao, C.F. (1984). The efficient assessment of need for cognition. Journal of Personality Assessment, 48(3), 306–307.