The Biological Roots of Complex Thinking: Are Heritable Attitudes More Complex?

Abstract

Are highly heritable attitudes more or less complex than less heritable attitudes? Over 2,000 participant responses on topics varying in heritability were coded for overall integrative complexity and its 2 subcomponents (dialectical complexity and elaborative complexity). Across different heritability sets drawn from 2 separate prior twin research programs, the present results yielded a consistent pattern: Heritability was always significantly positively correlated with integrative complexity. Further analyses of the subcomponents suggested that the manner in which complexity was expressed differed by topic type: For societal topics, heritable attitudes were more likely to be expressed in dialectically complex terms, whereas for personally involving topics, heritable attitudes were more likely to be expressed in elaboratively complex terms. Most of these relationships remained significant even when controlling for measurements of attitude strength. The authors discuss the genetic roots of complex versus simple attitudes, implications for understanding attitude development more broadly, and the contribution of these results to previous work on both heritability and complexity.

The hidden implications of radical group rhetoric: Integrative complexity and terrorism

“…However, we originally expected that (1) terrorist groups would have lower overall integrative complexity compared to non-terrorist groups, and that (2) this would be particularly evident for dialectical forms of complexity. What we expected for elaborative complexity was less clear, but based on prior work on psychological extremism (Conway et al, 2011), we expected that (3) terrorists would show equal or potentially even higher elaborative complexity than non-terrorist groups. As we shall see, the latter expectation proved false.…”

“…Research on these new constructs suggests the type of complex thinking matters: Dialectical and elaborative complexity are differentially associated with psychological extremism, lying, and attitude heritability Conway, Dodds, Towgood, McClure, & Olson, 2011).…”

What People Think About Torture: Torture Is Inherently Bad … Unless It Can Save Someone I Love

“…We also evaluated if participants' Abstract Views of Torture moderated the effect of Personal Closeness on support for torture in the scenario. To do this, we used Aiken and West's (1991) highly-cited method for testing interactions between variables via regression (for exemplars, see Conway & Schaller, 2005;Conway et al, 2009;Conway, Dodds, Hands Towgood, McClure, & Olson, 2011). Specifically, we (a) converted the Personal Closeness and Abstract Views of Torture to z-scores; (b) created an interaction term by computing their product; and then (c) entered Closeness, Abstract Views, and the interaction term as predictors in a regression for each of the two DVs separately.…”

Strategic Communication and the Integrative Complexity‐Ideology Relationship: Meta‐Analytic Findings Reveal Differences Between Public Politicians and Private Citizens in Their Use of Simple Rhetoric

“…Why integrative complexity? Integrative complexity has been extensively validated as a measurement of cognitive complexity differences across a number of domains (e.g., Conway & Conway, ; Conway, Conway, Gornick, & Houck, ; Conway, Dodds, Hands Towgood, McClure, & Olson, ; Conway, Suedfeld, & Tetlock, ; Conway et al, ; Conway, Gornick, et al, ; Hale, ; Houck, Conway, & Gornick, ; Suedfeld, , ; Suedfeld & Bluck, ; Suedfeld, Conway, & Eichhorn, ; Suedfeld, Leighton, & Conway, ; Suedfeld & Tetlock, ; Tetlock, , ; Thoemmes & Conway, ).…”

“…Further, because IC can be scored for anyone, researchers have successfully used it to understand and predict behavior in populations that are otherwise difficult to study, such as terrorists (Conway et al, ; Houck, Repke, & Conway, ; Smith, Suedfeld, Conway, & Winter, ), famous individuals (Houck, Conway, Parrow, Luce, & Salvati, ), and notable politicians (e.g. Conway et al, ; Conway, Gornick, et al, ; Conway et al, ; Gruenfeld, ; Jhangiani et al, ; Suedfeld, ; Suedfeld & Bluck, ; Suedfeld & Rank, ; Thoemmes & Conway, ).…”