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Some people find an ambiguous situation particularly hard to live with.

The need for closure is a personality trait, and it is not a symptom or a sign of illness.

Sometimes, having a high need for closure may cause you to do things in relationships that backfire.

Being aware of this may help you be more patient, kind, and compassionate with yourself.

Some people find uncertainty much more distressing than others do. An ambiguous, uncertain situation, like whether someone will reply to an email, whether a friend is upset with you, or why a partner has gone quiet, is harder to live with than hearing a clear piece of bad news. Conscious or not, your brain may then assume the worst outcome, just so you no longer have to put up with the grueling ambiguity and anxiety.

The social psychologist Arie Kruglanski and his colleagues coined the concept of the need for cognitive closure, describing it as someone's "desire for a firm answer to a question and an aversion toward ambiguity." The answer one craves doesn't need to be pleasant, as long as it ends the ambiguity. People with a high need for closure tend to show two tendencies. The first is urgency, the wish to reach an answer as soon as possible, and the second is permanence, the wish to keep that answer for as long as possible once you have it (Kruglanski and Webster, 1996). With a high need for cognitive closure, once you have an answer, you may stop seeking more information and find it hard to take in anything that might change your mind.

The need for closure is a personality trait, a persistent part of how you think and feel, and not only a temporary mood. It is not a symptom or a sign of illness, and it has both costs and benefits. If your need for closure is high, you may make important decisions quickly and confidently, and you feel........

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