Need for Cognition Scale (Short Form)

NFC-SF

psychologysocial scienceseducationFree for research use

Permission: Free for research use. Free for non-commercial academic research, with no license fee. Cite the original publication.

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. Reliability in the original validation sample of 527 University of Iowa students was high (theta = .90, a maximized coefficient alpha; Cacioppo, Petty, & Kao, 1984).

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Reliability & validation

Notes

Cacioppo, Petty, and Kao (1984) reported a theta coefficient (a maximized Cronbach's alpha) of .90 for the 18-item form in 527 University of Iowa students.

Validation population

527 University of Iowa students (Cacioppo, Petty, & Kao, 1984)

Cronbach's α

0.90

Response anchors

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

Known limitations

Unidimensional measure; subscales are not recommended. The 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

Questions researchers ask

What does the NFC-SF measure?

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

How many items does the NFC-SF have?

The Need for Cognition Scale (Short Form) (NFC-SF) has 18 items.

Is the NFC-SF free to use?

The NFC-SF is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the NFC-SF reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.90. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the NFC-SF, and how do I cite it?

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 September 2026. Metadata is provided for reference. Questionnaires are built in Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing, and can be taken to Qualtrics, Google Forms or Microsoft Forms, with their CSV responses brought back for scoring.