Thinking to Promote Happiness: Need for Cognition, Subjective Well-Being, and Burnout in Different Populations

The relation between Need for Cognition (NFC) and subjective well-being (SWB) receives increasing interest from personality research. We report two online studies linking NFC to different facets of SWB in a population-representative sample of N = 200 participants and two further subsamples comprising students (n = 256) and working adults (n = 198). Higher NFC was strongly associated with increased positive affect and lower burnout symptoms. High-NFC-students were more satisfied with the content of their studies, working individuals reported increased job satisfaction. Our results support the notion of NFC’s associations with general SWB but point to the necessity to distinguish between facets of SWB and burnout. They indicate that NFC should be considered a resource for SWB.