Theory and research are presented relating the need for cognitive closure to major facets of group behavior. It is suggested that a high need for closure, whether it is based on members' disposition or the situation, contributes to the emergence of a behavioral syndrome describable as group-centrism--a pattern that includes pressures to opinion uniformity, encouragement of autocratic leadership, in-group favoritism, rejection of deviates, resistance to change, conservatism, and the perpetuation of group norms. These theoretical predictions are borne out by laboratory and field research in diverse settings.

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Two experiments investigated the tendency of groups with members under high (vs. low) need for cognitive closure to develop an autocratic leadership structure in which some members dominate the discussion, constitute the "hubs" of communication, and influence the group more than other members. The first experiment found that high (vs. low) need for closure groups, as assessed via dispositional measure of the need for closure, manifested greater asymmetry of conversational floor control, such that members with autocratic interactional style were more conversationally dominant and influential than less autocratic members. The second experiment manipulated the need for closure via time pressure and utilized a social network analysis. Consistent with expectation, groups under time pressure (vs. no pressure) showed a greater asymmetry of participation, of centrality, and of prestige among the group members, such that the more focal members were perceived to exert the greater influence over the groups' decisions.

The hypothesis that the degree of contextual dependence of interpersonal verbs (as defined by Semin and Fiedler (1988)