What were the independent and dependent variables in the experiment?
There were two dependent variables, Integrative Complexity and Perceived Novelty. Integrative Complexity, the primary dependent variable of interest, is a measure of complex reasoning or thinking developed in the social psychological literature. Scores of Integrative Complexity are coded by raters from student essays, and is therefore a “performance-based” measure or a measure based upon a production task. As a companion to the behavioral data, Perceived Novelty measures students’ perception of how novel the arguments of the collaborator were and how much the collaborator made the student think. There were two primary independent variables. Racial diversity, the main focus of the study, was manipulated with the use of either a Black or White research collaborator who participated in the group discussion with three White participants. Since theory predicts enhanced integrative complexity with the presence of a minority opinion, we also manipulated (via the research collaborator) minorit
