Complementarity

What is it? | What is mine? | What can I do?

What is complementarity?

Complementarity is a principle derived from physics,* in which two opposing descriptions of reality are each true, yet a fuller truth arises from considering them both. A classic example is light, which can be understood either as photon particles, or in terms of propagating waves—though these two approaches contradict each other! Somehow a fuller understanding of light requires both. Niels Bohr, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who championed this principle, even designed his coat of arms based on the well-known yin-yang (taijitu) symbol of interacting opposites; the Latin motto translates as “Opposites are complementary.”

How might this apply to EcoTypes? The differences embedded in EcoTypes arise from our differing interactions with reality and can be a strength, if we are willing to engage with people whose EcoTypes differ from—indeed, may be the opposite of—ours. Engagement across difference is not easy! But it may be one of the most rewarding practical things you can do with EcoTypes; see the Going Deeper page (“What are some practical next steps I can take?”) for starter guidance.

This video offers you an overview of complementarity.

*Thanks to a student for recommending I add a far more familiar example: complementary colors, which similarly stand out as oppositional when placed next to each other—but form dull shades when one attempts to mix them. This reminds us that complementarity is not about finding some middle ground!

What is my complementary EcoType?

Your complementary EcoType is the one that differs from yours the most. It’s easy to identify your complementary EcoType: just go to your EcoTypes report, find your EcoTypes chart, and look for the sector opposite your dot (i.e., with theme domain signs that are the opposite of yours). Here are three examples, one from each theme domain:

• Place/Knowledge Ecotypes. Say your EcoType is Earth Spirit: it leans toward nonhuman Place and old Knowledge. So, your complementary Ecotype is in the opposite theme domain of human Place and new Knowledge: Technoprogress.
• Knowledge/Action EcoTypes. Say your EcoType is Radical Spirituality. It leans toward old Knowledge and big Action. So, your complementary EcoType leans toward new Knowledge and small Action: Incremental Progress.
• Action/Place EcoTypes. Say your EcoType is Social Justice. It leans toward big Action and human Place; so its complementary EcoType (leaning toward small Action and nonhuman Place) is Small Green Steps.

If you take a look at your complementary EcoType, you may say “I agree with that too.” It’s good to find ways to agree with others! But try to look for the important differences with your complementary EcoType as well: according to complementarity, we can achieve fuller environmental truths by better appreciating difference and disagreement.

What can I do to better appreciate complementarity?

If you’ve taken the EcoTypes survey and would like to better appreciate complementarity, the followup MCJD form [coming Aug 2025] gives you an opportunity to compare your EcoType and your complementary EcoType. In addition, the forthcoming EcoTypes book will offer a much fuller treatment of complementarity.

Below is a new, AI-based activity to help you appreciate complementarity!…please give it a try, and help us out by filling out our response form to tell us how it went.

In this activity you will engage in dialogue with an AI agent you have trained to converse as if it were your complementary EcoType. We will use ChatGPT for this pilot activity, but feel free to use other AI platforms and let us know how they worked.

We’ll assume for the below that your EcoType is Earth Spirit, thus your complementary EcoType is Technoprogress, and the two key themes will be Place and Knowledge.

1. First, remind yourself which four EcoTypes axes correspond to each theme in your EcoType.
   • Earth Spirit includes Place and Knowledge, so you will identify the four axes for each of these two themes.
   • For instance, Place includes Aesthetics, Ecosystems, Ethics, and Nature.
2. Now, go back to your survey results, and look for two axes you identified above for each theme, thus four axes total, toward which you leaned the most—i.e., your scores were closest to +/–1. These are the axes you will use to train your chatbot partner.
   • Let’s say that for Place your strongest scores were for Aesthetics and Ethics, and for Knowledge your strongest scores were for Spirituality and Time.
   • Now, go to these axes and copy the survey statements with which you disagreed. Let’s say your Aesthetics axis score was -0.6, so you agreed much more with “When it comes to beauty, it is hard for people to improve upon wild nature” than “People can craft beautiful things, such as gardens and parks, that look better than nature alone.” So, copy this latter statement!
   • For ease, you may wish to paste all four statements with which you disagree into a single document; you may wish to put quotation marks around each to clarify during your chatbot training session below.
   • Before proceeding, check your work: do the statements you copied truly represent those from your two theme domains (Place and Knowledge in this case) with which you disagree the most?
3. You are almost ready to chat with an AI bot representing your complementary EcoType. You may wish to sign up for one in advance; we’ll use ChatGPT below. This step is not required, but will help you readily save and retrieve your conversations…handy for educational uses.
4. OK, login and get started! You’ll first inform the chatbot of your desired conversation, then train it to take on the role of your complementary EcoType via the statements you copied. Here are some recommendations:
   • Start with an overview statement like this (feel free to modify): “I need to practice an environmental conversation with someone who disagrees with me. Can you help me prepare by role-playing with me? I will train you by sharing some statements they strongly agree with. Then you and I can have a pretend conversation; the goal of our conversation is to understand each other, not necessarily to agree.”
   • The chatbot will respond accordingly, and then usually give you the opportunity to enter the statements representing your complementary EcoType. It is recommended that you tell the bot you’ll enter each in quotes, so that the bot knows clearly that the statements represent positions with which you disagree.
   • If you have copied/pasted the complementary EcoTypes statements into a single document, you can paste all of them into the chatbox at once (remember the quotes!), or you can do them one at a time.
5. Now you will engage in dialogue with your chatbot! Feel free to try out multiple conversations, or multiple sessions; here are some ideas for starters.
   • Once you have trained the chatbot, they will say something like this: “Got it! I’ll take on the perspective of someone who strongly agrees with these statements. Let me know when you’re ready to start the role-play conversation, and feel free to set the scene or context for our discussion.”
   • You can then follow their recommendation. Here is one example: “Let’s say we are discussing our priority environmental policies for 2025 in the realm of climate change. Feel free to begin!” It may be best to focus on a particular environmental issue or policy, to bring out your differences more clearly.
   • The chatbot may initially say something that’s pretty close to one or more of the complementary EcoTypes statements with which they were trained. You can then probe what they say more deeply, perhaps by sharing how you feel differently, or by offering a summary of what you hear. Give it time!: see if you can more clearly understand, perhaps even appreciate, your differences. See where the chatbot goes with expressing their own position, or how well they seem to understand yours.
   • Make sure to explore both theme dimensions of your complementary EcoType. Say, if they start by discussing their position on Knowledge, feel free to respond with yours, but also remember to bring up your differences regarding Place.
   • Remember that the actual names of EcoTypes axes (e.g., Nature) and themes (e.g., Place) may not be fully understood by the chatbot in the way they are used in EcoTypes. You may need to clarify.
   • When you have fully explored your environmental issue and how it relates to your two themes, you may wish to summarize your learnings and differences with the chatbot. If you have logged in to the chat engine, your transcript will be saved, and you can study or copy it for future use.
   • Do you wish to initiate another conversation, perhaps on another environmental issue you care about? Then you can compare your conversations.
6. Make sure to give yourself time at the end to reflect on your conversation(s).
   • How did it feel to chat with an AI bot? How well did they express positions that differ from yours? How well did they seem to understand you?
   • What dimensions of the environmental issue or policy you discussed were significant in your conversation? Can you imagine how these dimensions may be significant in the real world?
   • What might be challenging for you, personally, in engaging in such conversations across huge difference? Did chatting with a chatbot make you feel more confident in actually having such conversations with a real person?
   • Go back to the theme of complementarity introduced above: what did you learn about opposing Place, Knowledge, and/or Action attractors, and how, in Bohr’s words, “opposites are complementary”?
   • If you are doing this exercise in a class, your instructor may give you other prompts to reflect and write on.
   • Remember also to complete the question form with any thoughts you have on this pilot activity!…thank you.