Some of us would rather turn a problem over for an afternoon than be handed a quick answer. We read the long article instead of the headline, we ask one more question at the dinner table, and we can lose an hour following an idea wherever it leads. If that sounds familiar, you may have wondered whether it is a quirk, a strength or just a habit that drives the people around you a little mad.
Psychologists have been studying this way of thinking for more than 40 years. They don’t call it “deep thinking”. The research term is “need for cognition”, and alongside it sits a newer area of study on a quality called intellectual humility. Together they paint a useful picture of what people with reflective minds tend to do, and what researchers have found about thinking and wellbeing.
They enjoy thinking for its own sake
The idea of need for cognition was set out in 1982 by psychologists John Cacioppo and Richard Petty, writing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. They described it as a person’s tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful thinking. To measure it, they built a questionnaire of 34 statements, later trimmed to a widely used 18-item version. People are asked how much they agree with ideas such as preferring complex problems to simple ones, or finding satisfaction in thinking hard for long periods.
The key word is enjoy. People who score high on the scale aren’t simply forced to think by their jobs or circumstances. They seek it out. A crossword, a tricky conversation, a documentary that raises more questions than it answers: these feel like rewards rather than chores.
They pay attention to the argument, not just the person making it
In 1996, Cacioppo, Petty and two colleagues pulled together the research on need for cognition in a major review published in Psychological Bulletin. One of the most consistent findings was about how people respond to persuasion.
When people high in need for cognition hear a message, they tend to weigh the quality of the reasoning. A strong argument moves them and a weak one doesn’t, regardless of how attractive or confident the speaker is. People lower in the trait are more likely to be swayed by shortcuts, such as who is talking, how many arguments are offered or how the message makes them feel. The review also found that people who enjoy thinking tend to recall more of the information they come across, which makes sense if they’ve actually chewed it over.
That habit can be a quiet form of protection. In a world of advertising, scams and confident opinions, the instinct to ask “but is that actually true?” is worth having.
They are open to the possibility that they might be wrong
A thoughtful mind isn’t only about how much we think. It’s also about how we hold our conclusions. In 2017, a team at Duke University led by psychologist Mark Leary published four studies in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin on intellectual humility, which they described as recognising that what we believe might be wrong.
In one study, participants read an essay about the benefits of flossing. Some versions were built on strong evidence and others on weak evidence. People higher in intellectual humility were better at telling the difference. They were also less likely to judge someone’s character based on the views that person held on a contested issue.
Interestingly, the researchers found that intellectual humility wasn’t tied to whether someone was conservative or liberal, religious or not. Open-minded people, and closed-minded ones, turned up across the spectrum.
For many of us, this is the hardest part of thinking well. It’s easy to enjoy a good debate when we’re winning. It takes more to say, “I hadn’t thought of that. Let me reconsider.”
They don’t assume thinking is the same as being clever
It would be tempting to treat need for cognition as another name for intelligence, but the research says otherwise. The 1996 review found the two are related but distinct. Plenty of very bright people would rather not think hard unless they must, and plenty of people who never shone at school love nothing more than puzzling something out.
The review also noted that when a situation clearly demands careful thought, people lower in the trait can match those higher in it. The difference is less about ability and more about appetite. Reflective thinkers are the ones who keep going when nobody is asking them to.
That is encouraging. It suggests that the habit of thinking deeply is less a gift handed out at birth and more a preference, and preferences can be nurtured.
They performed better on cognitive tests in one study
Some of the most interesting recent research looks at what need for cognition might mean for the ageing brain. In a study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, researchers at Maastricht University in the Netherlands looked at 4,209 adults aged 40 to 75 who were taking part in a large health study known as the Maastricht Study. Their average age was 59.
Participants filled in the need for cognition questionnaire, completed tests of memory, processing speed and attention, and had MRI brain scans. Those with higher scores on the questionnaire had better overall thinking test results. They also had lower odds of meeting the study’s threshold for cognitive impairment, and lower odds of signs of cerebral small vessel disease, a form of damage to the brain’s tiny blood vessels that is linked to later memory problems. These results held after the researchers accounted for demographic, health and lifestyle factors.
There is an important caution here. The study looked at one point in time, so it can’t show that enjoying thinking protects the brain. It is just as possible that people whose brains are healthier find thinking more enjoyable. The authors suggested that the motivation to engage in mentally stimulating activities may be an opportunity to support brain health, which is a reasonable and hopeful reading, but not a proven one.
They often report feeling better about life
A separate line of research has looked at wellbeing. Researchers Neshat Yazdani and Karen Siedlecki at Fordham University used data from the Virginia Cognitive Aging Project, which included 4,354 adults aged 18 to 99. Writing in the Journal of Happiness Studies in 2021, they asked why people with stronger thinking skills tend to report greater wellbeing.
They found that need for cognition was one of the factors that partly explained the link, alongside self-rated health, emotional stability and conscientiousness. In other words, part of the reason good thinking skills go along with feeling satisfied with life may be that people with those skills enjoy using them. Notably, simply reporting more mentally stimulating activity didn’t explain the link in the same way. The enjoyment seemed to matter, not just the busyness.
Again, this was a snapshot study rather than one that followed people over time, so it shows a pattern rather than cause and effect.
Deep thinking isn’t the same as worrying
It’s worth drawing a clear line. Enjoying a hard question is different from going over the same worry again and again at three in the morning. The research on need for cognition is about choosing to engage with ideas because it feels rewarding. Thinking that feels stuck, repetitive and unpleasant is a different thing altogether, and it is worth talking to a GP if it starts to wear you down.
Ways to nurture a reflective mind
None of this requires a degree or a library card, although both help. A few small habits fit the research well:
- Choose one thing each week that stretches you a little, whether it’s a longer book, a new language app or a course at the local library or U3A.
- When you read a strong claim, ask what the evidence is and who might disagree.
- In conversation, try asking “what makes you think that?” out of genuine curiosity rather than to win a point.
- Now and then, ask yourself what would change your mind on something you feel sure about.
- Look for company that enjoys ideas. Book clubs, discussion groups and men’s and women’s sheds are full of people who like to think things through.
If you’ve always been the one who wants to understand why, keep following that curiosity. The research suggests that people who enjoy thinking things through tend to pay closer attention to the quality of an argument. Asking one more question or taking time to reconsider an answer is a simple way to put that habit to work.
