The predictive power of integrative complexity and its subtypes is both well-documented and thoroughly researched, but the bulk of the research on the variable occurs within political psychology. Below, we present 2 studies that show integrative complexity's validity in understanding the psychology of entertainment and pop culture. In both studies, we utilized integrative complexity as a means of comparison between the winning films and losing films during the film award season. Study 1 compared the winners and losers in the Academy Awards' Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay categories for 5 randomly chosen years between 1990 and 2015. Study 2 expanded this scope and compared winners and losers from different categories for the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and People's Choice Awards. Across both studies, we found that winning films consistently scored lower for all 3 types of integrative complexity than the losing films. We believe our findings support the notion that integrative complexity is a viable variable outside of political psychology contexts, and also provides insight into how people psychologically perceive the quality of a film.

Is fiction a reflection of reality? Previous psychological research presents a contradicting picture. While Tetlock's value pluralism model (Tetlock, 1986) and research focused on the complexity of lying (Repke, Conway, & Houck, in press;Newman, Pennebaker, Berry, & Richards, 2003) would argue against fiction being a reflection, the concept of prototypes (Rosch, 1978) argues for it. The subsequent paper presents 2 studies that hopefully provide a clearer picture and an answer to the aforementioned question by comparing the integrative complexity of fictional characters to their real-life counterparts. Study 1 utilized a deep-but-narrow approach, comparing a single salient, prototypical category, while Study 2 utilized the opposite approach, comparing 10 varied, prototypical categories. Overall, both Study 1's and Study 2's result upheld a clear, overwhelming divergence between fiction and reality (the fictional characters were consistently simpler than the nonfictional characters); however, an intraclass correlation in Study 2 revealed surprising and significant levels of overlap between fiction and reality that differed depending on the unique category. While this research is still too raw and novel to do more than speculate on the exact reasoning behind the differing levels of overlap, the mere existence of the levels of overlap themselves indicate a nuanced answer to the research question. Fiction is both psychologically a representation of reality and a divergence from it. Public Policy Relevance StatementFiction is an inescapable aspect of the human experience, and yet little research directly addresses its underlining psychology. As such, we believe our studies and findings are significant because they provide a novel insight into the relationship between fiction and real-life. Even more importantly, our studies provide a strong foundation for future research into the psychology of fiction.

Vinney and Dill-Shackleford (2018) applied linguistic analysis to the study of the psychology of fanfiction. This article builds upon this previous research through two studies that individually score and compare the integrative complexity, a linguistic variable, of a sample of paragraphs from 45 popular fanfictions and 45 unpopular fanfictions. Across both studies, significant main effects were found for integrative complexity and its two subtypes. A singular mean pattern emerged: The popular fanfiction had consistently higher complexity scores than the unpopular fanfiction. These results are a clear divergence from expectations because typically simplicity is preferred over complexity (see Conway et al., 2012, for greater discussion). This divergence may be a result of the nature of writing and text-based medium, the nature of critical review, or potentially the nature of fanfiction as a partial by-product of fan frustration. Finally, these studies provide a foundation for future exploration in the underlying psychology of fanfiction as a growing phenomenon and new form of cultural critique. Public Policy Relevance StatementFanfiction is a central aspect of the majority of fan experiences; however, few studies have used psychological theory to explore and study fanfiction. Building on Vinney and Dill-Shackleford (2018), the present research uses integrative complexity to examine linguistic differences between popular and unpopular fanfictions and adds new information to our understanding of fanfiction as a cultural and psychological phenomenon.

Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. Two weeks of prism adaptation treatment for unilateral upper-limb complex regional pain syndrome I showed no benefits for pain or symptom severity compared with sham treatment.

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