It's official: I don't really care. (Need to evaluate)

After reading about the Need to Evaluate study by Jarvis and Petty (1996) in the text I realized that it was likely that I was low in need to evaluate. I believed this because after reading the findings of the study I found that I was the opposite of the high need to evaluate participants who were likely to describe their daily experiences in judgmental terms, or to hold strong feelings about political or social issues. I myself do not get very judgmental about what happened during my day, and I do not hold strong political or social attitudes. I decided that instead of assuming that I would rate low in need to evaluate that I would use the scale that was used by Jarvis and Petty (1996) to assess peoples levels on need to evaluate. People who scored a 57 or higher on the scale were considered to be high in need to evaluate and people who scored a 46 or below were considered to be low in need to evaluate, and anyone who scored between these scores was considered to be neutral on need to evaluate. I scored a 31 on the scale which put me in the low need to evaluate group, and considering that I never feel a strong desire to voice a strong opinion on pretty much any topic, unless I think that arguing a point on it may be entertaining and cognitively challenging, I believe that this is a fitting evaluation of the way that I form attitudes about such topics.


Jarvis, W. B. G., & Petty, R. E. (1996). The need to evaluate. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 172-194.