Sealed with certainty: The role of need for closure in relationship commitment

Decision making is a fundamental aspect of relationships, as romantic partners often evaluate costs and benefits of their relationship and contemplate whether to maintain it. A key factor that has repeatedly been shown to influence decision-making processes is need for closure, that is, the desire to quickly obtain a definitive answer or solution. Individuals who strongly desire closure prefer the status quo, seek familiarity, and dislike uncertainty, which might strengthen their intention to maintain an enduring relationship. Across five studies recruiting university students and community samples, we explored, for the first time, the role of need for closure in relationship commitment. In Study 1, individuals with a higher need for closure reported greater commitment to their romantic relationships. Studies 2a and 2b replicated these findings and showed that relationship satisfaction and investment, but not alternative quality, may explain the link between need for closure and commitment. Study 3 revealed that need for closure was linked with willingness to sacrifice—a downstream consequence of commitment. Using a three-wave longitudinal design, Study 4 found that within-person variation in need for closure was small, and need for closure explained mainly between- (but not within-) person differences in commitment. This study failed to replicate the mediating role of relationship satisfaction and investment observed in Studies 2a and 2b, thereby indicating caution in interpreting mechanisms suggested by our prior studies. Overall, the findings demonstrated a consistent between-person association of need for closure with relationship commitment, and revealed important research avenues to further understand how individual differences in decision making predict commitment.