let’s have a look at political discourse, which most people believe has been getting dumb and dumber. There’s no such thing as the IQ of a speech, but Tetlock and other political psychologists have identified a variable called integrative complexity that captures a sense of intellectual balance, nuance, and sophistication. A passage that is low in integrative complexity stakes out an opinion and relentlessly hammers it home, without nuance or qualification. Its minimal complexity can be quantified by counting words like absolutely, always, certainly, definitively, entirely, forever, indisputable, irrefutable, undoubtedly, and unquestionably. A passage gets credit for some degree of integrative complexity if it shows a touch of subtlety with words like usually, almost, but, however, and maybe. It is rated higher if it acknowledges two points of view, higher still if it discusses connections, tradeoffs, or compromises between them, and highest of all if it explains these relationships by reference to a higher principle or system. The integrative complexity of a passage is not the same as the intelligence of the person who wrote it, but the two are correlated, especially, according to Simonton, among American presidents.
Integrative complexity is related to violence. People whose language is less integratively complex, on average, are more likely to react to frustration with violence and are more likely to go to war in war games. Working with the psychologist Peter Suedfeld, Tetlock tracked the integrative complexity of the speeches of national leaders in a number of political crises of the 20th century that ended peacefully (such as the Berlin blockade in 1948 and the Cuban Missile Crisis) or in war (such as World War I and the Korean War), and found that when the complexity of the leaders’ speeches declined, war followed. In particular, they found a linkage between rhetorical simple-mindedness and military confrontations in speeches by Arabs and Israelis, and by the Americans and Soviets during the Cold War. We don’t know exactly what the correlations mean: whether mule-headed antagonists cannot think their way to an agreement, or bellicose antagonists simplify their rhetoric to stake out an implacable bargaining position. Reviewing both laboratory and real-world studies, Tetlock suggests that both dynamics are in play.
Now that I’ve been introduced to the concept, I want to evaluate how useful it is to incorporate into my rhetorical repertoire and vocabulary. And, to determine whether it can inform my beliefs about assessing the exfoliating intelligence of others (a term I’ll coin to refer to that intelligence/knowledge which another can pass on to me to aid my vocabulary and verbal abstract reasoning—my neuropsychological strengths which I try to max out just like an RPG character).
At a less meta level, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the trait will inform whether I choose to signal it or dampen it from herein and in what situations. It is important for imitators to remember that whatever IC is associated with does not neccersarily imply those associations to lay others.
strengths
conflict resolution (see Luke’s post)
As listed in psycholopedia:
appreciation of complexity
scientific profficiency
stress accomodationo
resistance to persuasion
prediction ability
social responsibliy
more initiative, as rated by managers, and more motivation to seek power, as gauged by a projective test
weaknesses
based on psychlopedia:
low scores on compliance and conscientiousness
seem antagonistic and even narcissistic
based on the wiki article:
dependence (more likely to defer to others)
rational expectations (more likely to fallaciously assume they are dealing with rational agents)
Upon reflection, here are my conclusions:
high integrative complexity dominates low integrative complexity for those who have insight into the concept and self aware of how it relates to them, others, and the capacity to use the skill and hide it.
the questions eliciting the answers that are expert rated to define the concept of IC by psychometricians is very crude and there ought to be a validated tool devised, if that is an achievable feat (cognitive complexity or time estimates beyond the scope of my time/intelligence at the moment)
I have been using this tool as my primary estimate of intelligence of people but will instead subordinate it to ordinary psychometric status before I became aware of it here and will now elevate traditional tools of intelligence to their established status
I’m interested in learning about the algorithms used to search say Twitter and assess IC. Anyone got any info?
very interested in any research on IC association with corporate board performance and shareprices etc. Doesn’t seem to be much research but generally research does start with Defence implications before going corporate...
Interested in exploring relations between the assessment of IC and tools used in CBT given their structural similarity...and by extensions general relationships between IC and mental health
More (#3) from Better Angels of Our Nature:
Further reading on integrative complexity:
Wikipedia Psychlopedia Google book
Now that I’ve been introduced to the concept, I want to evaluate how useful it is to incorporate into my rhetorical repertoire and vocabulary. And, to determine whether it can inform my beliefs about assessing the exfoliating intelligence of others (a term I’ll coin to refer to that intelligence/knowledge which another can pass on to me to aid my vocabulary and verbal abstract reasoning—my neuropsychological strengths which I try to max out just like an RPG character).
At a less meta level, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the trait will inform whether I choose to signal it or dampen it from herein and in what situations. It is important for imitators to remember that whatever IC is associated with does not neccersarily imply those associations to lay others.
strengths
conflict resolution (see Luke’s post)
As listed in psycholopedia:
appreciation of complexity
scientific profficiency
stress accomodationo
resistance to persuasion
prediction ability
social responsibliy
more initiative, as rated by managers, and more motivation to seek power, as gauged by a projective test
weaknesses
based on psychlopedia:
low scores on compliance and conscientiousness
seem antagonistic and even narcissistic based on the wiki article:
dependence (more likely to defer to others)
rational expectations (more likely to fallaciously assume they are dealing with rational agents)
Upon reflection, here are my conclusions:
high integrative complexity dominates low integrative complexity for those who have insight into the concept and self aware of how it relates to them, others, and the capacity to use the skill and hide it.
the questions eliciting the answers that are expert rated to define the concept of IC by psychometricians is very crude and there ought to be a validated tool devised, if that is an achievable feat (cognitive complexity or time estimates beyond the scope of my time/intelligence at the moment)
I have been using this tool as my primary estimate of intelligence of people but will instead subordinate it to ordinary psychometric status before I became aware of it here and will now elevate traditional tools of intelligence to their established status
I’m interested in learning about the algorithms used to search say Twitter and assess IC. Anyone got any info?
very interested in any research on IC association with corporate board performance and shareprices etc. Doesn’t seem to be much research but generally research does start with Defence implications before going corporate...
Interested in exploring relations between the assessment of IC and tools used in CBT given their structural similarity...and by extensions general relationships between IC and mental health