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The epistemic bases of changes of opinion and choices: The joint effects of the need for cognitive closure, ascribed epistemic authority and quality of advice
Author(s) -
Pica Gennaro,
Milyavsky Maxim,
Pierro Antonio,
Kruglanski Arie W.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2753
Subject(s) - advice (programming) , quality (philosophy) , psychology , closure (psychology) , cognition , epistemology , social psychology , philosophy , political science , law , computer science , neuroscience , programming language
This research investigates the epistemic underpinnings of changes of opinion and choices. Basing our investigations on the Lay Epistemic Theory, we hypothesized that individuals with a high (vs. low) need for cognitive closure would be more influenced by the high (vs. low) level of the epistemic authority of an advisor, and would be less influenced by the quality of the provided advice. These hypotheses were supported in two experimental studies (Total N = 352) within two different domains of decision‐making (a legal case in Study 1 and consumer behavior in Study 2). The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.