Item selection and validation of a brief, 15-item version of the Need for Closure Scale

Since its introduction, the Need for Closure (NFC) Scale (Webster & Kruglanski, 1994; revised by Roets & Van Hiel, 2007) has been frequently used in psychological research. However, given the scale’s substantial length, researchers often used abridged, ‘idiosyncratic’ versions by selecting a number of items on seemingly arbitrary grounds, without reporting or validating their item selection. The present study aims to meet the apparent need for an empirically validated abridged NFC scale. Based on data obtained from an aggregated heterogeneous sample (N = 1584), we propose a 15-item selection comprising three items from each facet scale. Comparison of the full and reduced NFC scales revealed similar psychometric properties and correlations with third variables. The brief NFC scale provides researchers with a useful tool for assessing the NFC construct when practical considerations prohibit the use of the original full 42-item scale or the 41-item revised version.