Subjective well-being is both an indicator of and the essential foundation for accomplishing tasks or mastering challenges at university, work, and other areas of life. Hence, much research has addressed questions about variables that may be beneficial or detrimental to subjective well-being. A personality trait that has increasingly been addressed by such research is Need for Cognition (NFC). This article reports two studies that were aimed at deepening our understanding of how NFC is linked to different facets of SWB in three samples. Study 1 provided initial insights using short scales and examining a population-representative sample of N = 200 participants. Study 2 extended that research by examining NFC’s relationships with affective well-being, both general and domain-specific life satisfaction, and burnout via online self-reports. Domain-specific analyses were applied to two subsamples consisting of students and working adults, respectively. Participants were 489 adults of which 256 were students and 198 were working. The results confirmed previous results in which higher NFC was weakly to moderately associated with higher positive affect and life satisfaction. Additionally, students with higher NFC levels were more satisfied with the content of their studies, and working individuals reported increased job satisfaction. For both studying and working individuals, NFC predicted lower burnout symptoms. We found evidence both for generalizable associations of NFC with higher order constructs and for the necessity to distinguish between different facets of subjective well-being and burnout. Our results indicate that NFC should be considered a resource for subjective well-being and mental health.
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