IC thinking

engaging with worldview clash

IC thinking

is a research-based model that promotes social cohesion and reduces conflict and violence from a range of extremisms.

Integrative Complexity (IC) equips people to retain their own deep value commitments, engage with other viewpoints and find common values between them.

We design research-assessed courses to raise IC for

• religious leaders
• churches
• young Muslims
• schools
• right-wing groups
• international organisations

We provide IC training for leaders to use the course materials and conflict resolution skills through IC.

For more information on running these courses: https://sites.google.com/site/icthinking/ 

INTEGRATIVE COMPLEXITY: IC THINKING 

Our IC courses are based on decades of research on Integrative Complexity (IC) that show that when levels of IC rise, peaceful solutions to real world conflicts ensue.  When IC drops, violent conflict between groups is predicted (Suedfeld, 2003). 

OUR RESEARCH 

We are the first psychologists to reverse engineer the raising of IC for conflict resolution; research assessment shows that it works. 

Our research shows that participants' IC rises through our courses. 

Initial research shows strong correlations with pro-social activism. 

More research is underway.  Please contact us for a research report.

CONTACT US 

Please contact us for course materials, training and information about developing projects: 

ICthinking@divinity.cam.ac.uk

FROM OUR PARTICIPANTS & COURSE LEADERS 

'You can be British and you can be Muslim. It doesn't have to be one or the other.' - Participant 

‘For me as a facilitator it’s really gratifying to see the kind of very fixed opinions of some of the young people radically change over the 8 sessions… It’s a really exciting opportunity for the young people as they have opened up their way of thinking – opened up the possibilities for themselves.’  - Course Leader 

‘[the course] has done so much for my understanding where people come from: their values and beliefs… It’s helped me to put my own values and views into perspective… to refine them…and that can’t be taken away.’ - Participant 

'These are high end, very articulate, very intelligent young people... The [local] BMBB experience showed that the whole group at the beginning their views were aligned with the Hizb-ut-Tahrir. But at the end of the course all of them had significantly changed their position.’ - Course Leader

'IC is really important for negotiators, and particularly for wars and for finding diplomatic solutions, and we can learn from that and take it into our lives. Both sides need to look beyond the stereotypes and see the bigger picture and build bridges.' - Participant 

'The course has named and given structure to a number of experiences of conflict which has helped me put them in context’ - Participant

‘I liked how we had to think laterally about conflict resolution and not act upon our first instincts.’ - Participant 

IC related PUBLICATIONS

• Suedfeld, P, Guttieri, K, & Tetlock, P E (2003). 'Assessing integrative complexity at a distance: Archival analyses of thinking and decision making'. In J. M. Post (Ed.), The psychological assessment of political leaders: With profiles of Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton (pp. 246-272). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Suedfeld, P, & Leighton, D C (2002). 'Early Communications in the War against Terrorism: An Integrative Complexity Analysis'. Political Psychology, 23(3), 585-599.

• Savage, S, Liht, J & Williams, R (in press 2011) ‘Being Muslim Being British: preventing extremist violence through raising Integrative Complexity’. In M. Sharpe (Ed) The Intangibles of Security, NATO publication, IOS Press, NL.
• Liht, J & Savage, S (2010) Being Muslim Being British: A multi-media educational resource for young Muslims in G. Joffe (Ed) Radicalisation, IB Tauris.
• Savage, S & Boyd-MacMillan, E (2010) Conflict in Relationships: understand it, overcome it, Oxford: Lion/ Hudson Publishers.
• Williams, R J (2010) book review. 'The de-radicalisation of  Jihadists: Transforming armed Islamist movements' by Omar Ashour (2009). Critical Studies on Terrorism 3 (2).
• Liht, J & Savage, S (2008) Identifying young Muslims susceptible to violent radicalisation: Psychological theory and recommendations in M. Sharpe (ed) Suicide Bombing: psychological and other imperatives, NATO publication, IOS, NL.
• Savage, S (2008) Towards integrative solutions to moral disputes between conservative and liberal Christians, The Journal of Psychology and Christianity (special edition 2008).
• Savage, S & Liht, J (2008) ‘Radical religious speech: how to assemble the ingredients of a binary world view’ in (J. Weinstein, ed) Extreme Speech and Democracy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Boyd-Macmillan, E, Savage, S, & Liht, J (2008) Conflict transformation among senior church leaders with differing theological stances, report published by the Foundation for Church Leadership.
• Savage, S & Liht, J (2008) ‘Mapping fundamentalisms: the psychology of religion as a sub-discipline in the prevention of religiously motivated violence’ (K. Helmut Reich & Peter C. Hill, eds) Quo Vadis Psychology of Religion? Introduction to the Special Section, The Archive for the Psychology of Religion, The International Association for the Psychology of Religion.
• Savage, S &  Boyd-Macmillan E (2007), The Human Face of Church: a social psychology and pastoral theology resource for pioneer and traditional ministry, London: SCM- Canterbury Press.
• Savage, S (2006) 'Fundamentalism' in E. T. Dowd & S.L. Neilsen, (eds) Exploration of the Psychologies in Religion, Springer Publishers.
• Liht, J., P. Suedfeld, et al. (2005) ‘Integrative Complexity in Face-to-Face Negotiations between the Chiapas Guerrillas and the Mexican Government’,Political Psychology 26(4): 543-552.