Need for Cognition Scale (Short Form)

NFC-SF

psychologysocial scienceseducationFree for research use

An 18-item short form of the Need for Cognition scale measuring an individual's tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activity.

Items

Response format

5-point Likert scale

Version

1.0

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Need for cognition was assessed using the 18-item short form of the Need for Cognition Scale (Cacioppo, Petty, & Kao, 1984), with nine negatively-worded items reverse-scored. The scale showed high internal consistency in the original validation (α = .90).

Reliability & validation

notes

α reported by Cacioppo, Petty, & Kao (1984) for the 18-item short form.

Validation population

Undergraduate students

Cronbach's α

0.9

Response anchors

Strongly disagree · Disagree · Neither agree nor disagree · Agree · Strongly agree

Known limitations

Unidimensional measure; subscales are not recommended. Original scale used a −4 to +4 response format, but 1–5 and 1–7 Likert variants are common — report the format used and apply reverse scoring against the response range in use.

Original 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.

https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4803_13

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Library entry verified January 2024. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.