Human minds can not really deal with loose ends. Whenever we have things left unresolved, whether it’s a conversation, a promise, or a “To-do” list that has not been marked off, tension is built up by human minds. Even after a break-up, if there’s no proper closure, we tend to feel empty. And, we are drawn towards going back to talking to them. We want closure. And why do we crave it? Because uncertainty can cause discomfort to us as individuals. We tend to manage the ambiguity, the open loops, rather emotionally. And in that manner, we can reduce the psychological stress as we claw back some sense of control.
Read More: Feeling Empty Inside? Causes, Signs, and Effective Ways to Overcome Emptiness
What Is Closure & Why Do We Seek It?
Closure (or the need for cognitive closure) can be introduced to us as a rather strong desire for a definitive end answer to minimise ambiguity (Kruglanski, Webster & Klem, 1993). When we are uncertain about any situation in our life, like a decision with respect to our exam results, enduring a conflict, or trying to figure out the meaning behind a text from someone we have a crush on, for example, it tends to create uncertainty, and our brain will experience open loops, which can be mentally and emotionally exhausting.
Uncertainty can often negatively impair people, causing them anxiety, worry, or stress. One nearly unintentional effect individuals will often grapple with when there is uncertainty present is that they will negatively simulate possible outcomes in their thinking, which ultimately intensifies their negative emotions. Individual differences in how people actually cope with and/or tolerate the difference in uncertainty (referred to as intolerance of uncertainty) can be considered one of the key elements to how strongly someone will crave closure and direct their actions accordingly (Anderson et. al., 2019).
Read More: Breakup and the obsession for closure
How Open Loops Disrupt Emotional Regulation?
Unsupported loops, including uncompleted tasks, unresolved questions, ambiguous relationships, and various other incomplete events, work like open mental “keys or tabs.” They act as barriers to thinking about other matters and regularly keep persistent thoughts active. Intrusive thoughts are exhausting apart from managing emotional regulation, or being able to manage the emotion of my responses, which is difficult when multiple open loops are using scarce mental resources.
A study involving individuals with Generalized Anxiety Disorder found that people who had high intolerance of uncertainty had more struggles with adaptive regulation strategies (like cognitive reappraisal – taking more time to think, redefining one’s feelings about a situation – than just accepting it) and used suppression (trying to remove or push away emotions) much more often – which tends to create more stress (Sun et al., 2025).
Emotion regulation theory (e.g. Gross’s model of emotion regulation) continues to stress that properly regulating emotions involves identifying one’s emotions, reinterpreting their meaning, and modulating response patterns – rather than just trying to close the gap or resolve something when one doesn’t necessarily need to (Koole, 2009).
Read More: Emotion Regulation Across the Lifespan: Mechanisms and Outcomes
When Craving Closure Becomes Unhealthy
While it is useful, a need for closure can also be repressive, and if someone is way too rigid about closure, they:
- Maybe making hasty and immediate evaluations simply as a way to dissolve ambiguity, which subsequently dismisses nuance.
- Becoming rather maladaptively reliant on certainty as a means of avoidance, and eventually turning away from naturally uncertain contexts that conflict with their rigid need for closure.
- Being emotionally disturbed usually occurs when closure is not an available option for the individuals seeking it, for example, those suffering from the missing person cases and ambiguous loss phenomena, or going through open-ended conflict reconciliation processes.
Additionally, every individual is different: some can tolerate uncertainty, while others can be deeply distressed by uncertain occurrences. The latter typically experience more anxiety, worry, and poorer emotional well-being (Sun et al, 2025; Anderson et al, 2019).
How We Can Better Manage Uncertainty & Open Loops
It is important to recognise that closure will not always be possible and that learning to regulate my emotions will be beneficial. Examples of emotional regulation strategies include:
- Cognitive reappraisal: Changing the frame of reference for the uncertain situation to follow. Such as a temporarily unstable situation or learning situation, rather than a disaster.
- Acceptance: Allowing the uncomfortable feeling to be there, without engaging in an emotional tussle. Avoiding overreaction leads to acceptance.
- Mindfulness: Remaining in the present moment is very important. One must avoid rehearsing all the ways things could go wrong in one’s head.
- Task prioritisation & closure: Breaking open loops into actionable items, or deliberately deciding which open loops to close first.
Studies have shown that individuals who utilise more adaptive regulatory strategies will experience uncertainty in a less anxiety-provoking way (Sun et al., 2025; Koole, 2009).
Read More: How To Regulate Our Emotions?
Why Open Loops & Uncertainty are So Potent
They can thwart mental simulation. When there is no closure, our brains are simulating future possibilities, most often negative scenarios, and this increases negativity. The desire for closure is about wanting certainty and to lessen uncertainty—people want the sense that they can act with knowledge rather than being blindsided. Uncertainty also requires more cognitive resources while actively considering all possible options, worrying, and thinking of contingency plans. This takes their cognitive resources.
Conclusion
Wanting closure is a natural human reaction to feeling unbalanced and uncertain. While this desire to achieve closure can help quell our emotional turmoil, the need for closure can be problematic for our mental health when we allow it to go unchecked and remain a necessity. Developing emotional regulation-collected skills like acceptance, reframing one’s perspective, and awareness of the present helps people learn to manage uncertainty within the three bases of emotional engagement. Closure can bring relaxation to our minds; however, closure mustn’t become the sole source of enjoyment in our well-being.
Read More: How Radical Acceptance can make life easier to live
FAQs
1. Is wanting closure the same as avoiding uncertainty?
Not exactly. Wanting closure means you seek an answer or resolution. Avoiding uncertainty means you try to escape ambiguity at all costs, even when resolution might not help or be possible.
2. Are some people more prone to discomfort from open loops?
Yes. People with high intolerance of uncertainty (IU) are more affected. Studies show they use less adaptive emotion regulation and have greater anxiety symptoms.
3. Can closure needs be beneficial?
Absolutely. In many cases, closure helps reduce stress, lets people move forward, make decisions, and restore emotional balance.
4. When is craving closure unhealthy?
When it’s rigid (need everything resolved immediately), when closure is impossible (ambiguous losses), or when it leads to avoidance of uncertainty in areas that naturally require flexibility (relationships, creative work).
5. How can someone practice better regulation around uncertainty?
Strategies like mindfulness, acceptance, cognitive reappraisal, breaking down tasks/open loops, and knowledge that some ambiguity is natural can help build resilience.
References +
Anderson, E. C., Carleton, R. N., Diefenbach, M., & Han, P. K. J. (2019). The relationship between uncertainty and affect. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02504
Koole, S. L. (2008). The psychology of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Cognition & Emotion, 23(1), 4–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930802619031
Rubin, M., Paolini, S., & Crisp, R. J. (2011). The relationship between the need for closure and deviant bias: An investigation of generality and process. International Journal of Psychology, 46(3), 206–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207594.2010.537660
Sahib, A., Chen, J., Cárdenas, D., & Calear, A. (2023). Intolerance of uncertainty and emotion regulation: A meta-analytic and systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 101, 102270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2023.102270
Sahib, A., Chen, J., Cárdenas, D., Calear, A. L., & Wilson, C. (2024). Emotion regulation mediates the relation between intolerance of uncertainty and emotion difficulties: A longitudinal investigation. Journal of Affective Disorders, 364, 194–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2024.08.056
Sun, L., Zou, H., Li, W., Li, H., Pang, J., Cui, H., & Li, C. (2025). Intolerance of uncertainty and emotion regulation in Generalised Anxiety Disorder: The role of Reappraisal and Suppression. Behavioral Sciences, 15(9), 1238. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15091238
White, H. A. (2021). Need for cognitive closure predicts stress and anxiety of college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Personality and Individual Differences, 187, 111393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111393
