The role of need for cognition and perceived self-efficacy in modulating emotional and behavioural responses to failure

Abstract Background Need for cognition (NFC) measures the enjoyment of and the search for intellectual challenges and is probably the best-known construct for measuring cognitive motivation. Several studies have shown that individuals high in NFC invest more mental effort in complex tasks, process information more deeply and perceive themselves to be effective problem solvers. To date, however, there has been little research investigating the need for cognition in relation of failure in cognitively challenging tasks. Therefore, in this study, we investigated whether NFC influences the extent to which anger is experienced after a failure in cognitively demanding tasks and whether individuals high in NFC are more intended to continue after failure (persistence) than those low in NFC. Method A total of 194 participants took part in this study. Each participant completed two solvable tasks (one anagram, one tangram; control-condition) and two unsolvable tasks (one anagram, one tangram) to generate the experience of failure. After completing each task, the participants were asked to report their state anger. Furthermore, after each of the two unsolvable tasks, the participants had to decide whether they wanted to solve the tasks again to assess their intention to persist after a failure. Based on studies showing that perceived self-efficacy (PSE) influences emotional responses to failure, PSE was also considered as an independent variable and as a moderator of the relationship between NFC and the experience of failure. Results The results demonstrate that NFC positively affects feelings of state anger after failure in cognitively challenging tasks and that this effect was moderated by PSE. Furthermore, state anger positively affected the intention to show persistence in individuals higher in NFC and PSE. Discussion Thus, these experimental results support conceptual assumptions of NFC as intrinsic motivation to engage in cognitive endeavors and underline the potentially important role of NFC and PSE in modulating responses to failure.