Integrative complexity and attitudes: A case study of plant and wildlife species protection

Cognitive psychologists have developed and tested a protocol for measuring the complex way that people think about issues. Called integrative complexity, it represents the intricacy of a person's thought processes in evaluating information and making decisions. It is based on the number of aspects of a problem people consider (differentiation) and how this information is incorporated (integration) to form views about an issue. We measured the integrative complexity of perceptions of plant and wildlife species protection. Residents of Illinois described, in an essay, their position on this issue using a mail‐back questionnaire. We examined how integrative complexity was related to attitudes toward plant and wildlife species protection, objective knowledge about the issue, and environmental ideology. Integrative complexity was highest for knowledgeable individuals with moderate attitudes toward species protection. Attitude‐direction and environmental ideology were not related to the complexity of thought. Implications of this research focus on the measurement of integrative complexity, how the construct can improve our understanding of public attitudes and values toward natural resource issues, understanding the relationship between attitudes and behaviors, and assessing the effects of communication programs about natural resource issues.