Integrative complexity names the capacity to hold competing perspectives and link them.

Evidence

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, transformational foreign experiences may cause people to become more integratively complex (Tadmor & Tetlock, 2006). “Integrative complexity” refers to the capacity and willingness to acknowledge the legitimacy of competing perspectives on the same issue (differentiation) and to forge conceptual links among these perspectives (integration). Indeed, researchers have postulated that those with chronic cognitive access to multiple cultural scripts are confronted with a greater level of cultural conflict than individuals who adopt only a single cultural identity; the more conflicts that are routinely resolved in a complex way, the greater the likelihood of simultaneously accessing both cultural knowledge networks despite their apparent dissimilarities and contradictions (Tadmor & Tetlock, 2006). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2266

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘integrative complexity’ as differentiation plus integration of competing perspectives on one issue.