Putting the freeze on priming: the role of need for cognitive closure on the prime-norm dynamic

Past research has indicated that individuals with a high need for cognitive closure (nfcc) are more susceptible to priming effects in norm-absent contexts. we proposed that in norm-present contexts,whereby normative information competes with priming in affecting individuals' understanding of the social environment,the opposite pattern would occur. in study 1,low- rather than high-nfcc individuals showed greater prime-consistent behavior in a context with a strong norm to comply. in study 2,when both priming and normative information were manipulated,priming dictated low-nfcc individuals' behaviors,whereas norms guided high-nfcc individuals' behavior. in study 3,the effect of a single priming manipulation was observed in two consecutive contexts. while high-nfcc individuals,compared with low-nfcc ones,were less prime-consistent in the norm-present context,they were more influenced by the same priming manipulation in the norm-absent context. our findings underscore the importance of nfcc in people's selection of environmental cues to guide self-regulation. © 2014 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.