Lay Epistemic Theory: The Motivational, Cognitive, and Social Aspects of Knowledge Formation

Abstract

We review and integrate three separate research programs emanating from the theory of lay epistemics (Kruglanski, A. W. (1989). Lay Epistemics and Human Knowledge: Cognitive and Motivational Bases. New York: Plenum). The need for cognitive closure is an epistemic motivation that propels knowledge formation and has widely ramifying consequences for individual, interpersonal, and group phenomena. The unimodel investigates the process of new knowledge formation from the 'information given.' The work on epistemic authority highlights the centrality of social source effects, including the self as a source, in human epistemic behavior. These three research programs examine facets of epistemic behavior that function interdependently to produce the knowledge that guides individual and social functioning.Social and Personality Psychology Compass 4/10 (

The Motivated Gatekeeper of Our Minds

“…The brief summary of the basic NFC effects on information processing and knowledge construction presented above corresponds to the core focus of the considerable body of research on NFC in the first two decades since its introduction (for more elaborate reviews, see Kruglanski, 2004;Kruglanski et al, 2010;Kruglanski et al, 2006;. However, in recent years, NFC-related work has entered a new phase, with notable progress in both basic and applied research.…”

“…. compared to confusion and ambiguity" (Kruglanski, 1990, p. 337), the NFC concept constitutes a core motivational construct of Kruglanski's theoretical framework of lay epistemics, a general theory about the process of knowledge formation (e.g., Kruglanski, 1980Kruglanski, , 1989Kruglanski, Dechesne, Orehek, & Pierro, 2009;Kruglanski, Orehek, Dechesne, & Pierro, 2010). NFC represents a motivational tendency whose magnitude is determined by the (perceived) benefits and costs of closure relative to the benefits and costs of lacking closure.…”

The Role of Need for Cognitive Closure in Retrieval-Induced Forgetting and Misinformation Effects in Eyewitness Memory

“…According to the lay epistemic theory (Kruglanski, 1989;Kruglanski, Orehek, Dechesne, & Pierro, 2010), a strong degree of NfCC induces the desire to have closure urgently and to maintain it permanently. Hence, individuals with a strong such need tend to "seize" upon information permitting a judgment on a topic of interest, and to "freeze" upon it, becoming relatively "closed minded," and impervious to further relevant information (Kruglanski & Webster, 1996).…”

Personal need for structure as a boundary condition for humor in leadership

“…According to lay epistemic theory (Kruglanski, Orehek, Dechesne, & Pierro, ), personal need for structure is a dispositional variable that captures peoples' attitudes toward structures and hierarchy, describing “the extent to which they are dispositionally motivated to cognitively structure their worlds in simple, unambiguous ways” (Neuberg & Newsom, , p. 114). In the context of organizations, employees high in need for structure prefer hierarchically structured organizations (Friesen et al, ) and task‐oriented leadership (Ehrhart & Klein, ).…”