Association of need for cognition with judgments of height, weight, and body fat covariation

559 college students, assessed for Need for Cognition, judged whether heigh t, weight, and body fat were correlated using judgment probes that controll ed for framing and conditional format. A principal components analysis of N eed for Cognition scores identified two factors underlying the scale, which may be important in judgment outcome, in addition, judgments about correla tions among height, weight, and body fat were similar to those of previous studies. Furthermore, the hypothesis that Need for Cognition would be relat ed to the tendency to judge a negative correlation between height and body fat, i.e., a possible illusory correlation, was confirmed. Results are disc ussed relative to the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion.