The Relationship Between Need for Closure and Conservative Beliefs in Western and Eastern Europe Malgorzata Kossowska Institute of Psychology Jagiellonian University, Poland Alain Van Hiel Department of Developmental, Personality, and Social Psychology Ghent University, Belgium This work explored the hypothesis that need for closure is associated with the adoption of conservative ideology. Two different studies on eastern and western European samples (Polish and Flemish) supported the hypothesis that need for closure—as measured by Webster and Kruglanski’s (1994) Need for Closure Scale—is related to conservative beliefs. However, in the second study, a negative relationship between need for closure and eco- nomic conservatism in the Polish sample was noted, whereas a positive relationship occurred in the Flemish sample. These results may be accounted for by the Need for Simple Structure factor of Neuberg, Judice, and West (1997) and by specific rather than non- specific epistemic processes. KEY WORDS: conservatism, cross-cultural differences, need for closure, motivated social cogni- tion, political beliefs The relationship between cognitive functioning and conservative beliefs has recently been studied by proponents of the motivated social cognition approach to political psychology (e.g., Jost, Glaser, & Kruglanski, in press). Persons having low levels of motivation to process information would be more likely to support conservative ideologies because these rely on tradition, are aimed at (societal) sta- bility, and imply the avoidance of ambiguity caused by change. Jost et al. (in press) mention the need for closure as a motivated cognition variable that provides a the- oretical link to conservative ideological contents. In line with this, Kemmelmeier (1997) showed a positive association between need for closure and right-wing Political Psychology, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2003 0162-895X © 2003 International Society of Political Psychology Published by Blackwell Publishing. Inc., 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ 501