Intellectual humility

Recognition of the limits of your knowledge and awareness of your fallibility

Intellectual humility is a metacognitive process characterized by recognizing the limits of one's knowledge and acknowledging one's fallibility. It involves several components, including not thinking too highly of oneself, refraining from believing one's own views are superior to others', lacking intellectual vanity, being open to new ideas, and acknowledging mistakes and shortcomings. It is positively associated with openness to new ideas, empathy, prosocial values, tolerance for diverse perspectives, and scrutiny of misinformation. Individuals with higher levels of intellectual humility experience benefits such as improved decision-making, positive social interactions, and the moderation of conflicts. There is a long history of philosophers considering the importance of intellectual humility as a 'virtue'. The modern study of this phenomenon began in the mid-2000s.

Definition

Intellectual humility is a psychological process, a metacognitive entity, defined as "the recognition of the limits of one’s knowledge and an awareness of one’s fallibility."^[1]

Components

Intellectual humility is "a multifaceted and multilayered virtue"^[2] which involves several key components that shape an individual's intellectual disposition. An intellectually humbler person will:

• Not think too highly of themselves
• Not think that one's beliefs or attitudes are better or more correct than other viewpoints
• Lack intellectual vanity
• Not boast or brag about their intellectual accomplishments
• Not be defensive when challenged or try to explain away their intellectual shortcomings
• Take complaints and criticism seriously
• Acknowledge their mistakes and shortcomings
• Show open-mindedness to new ideas
• "Own" their intellectual limitations^[2]

It is positively associated with openness to new ideas, empathy, prosocial values, tolerance for diverse people and perspectives, scrutiny of misinformation, greater openness to learning about different political views, lower affective polarization, and higher religious tolerance.^[3]

Benefits

There are a variety of benefits to individuals who have higher intellectual humility including:

• Improved decision-making: "more likely to process information in ways that enhance their knowledge and understanding than people lower in intellectual humility."
• Positive interactions: "more positive social interactions, especially when disagreements arise . .. . people who are more intellectually humble to be liked better than those low in IH.^[4]

At a social level there are also benefits including the moderation of conflicts and may lead to greater compromise.^[4]

The consequences of the reverse - i.e. overconfidence - can be problematic. As social psychologist Scott Plous wrote, "No problem in judgement and decision making is more prevalent and more potentially catastrophic than overconfidence."^[5] It has been blamed for lawsuits, strikes, wars, poor corporate acquisitions,^[6][7] and stock market bubbles and crashes.

A large study of nearly 50,000 participants from over 68 countries the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April–May 2020) found that "open-mindedness turns out to be the strongest predictor for rejecting conspiracy beliefs" (and support for public health measures) related to COVID-19.^[8]

Acquisition

A study found that users of an online tool could experience a small- to medium-sized increase in their intellectual humility.^[3]

History

For millennia, philosophers have championed "a recognition of one's epistemic limit" and have named it an epistemic virtue.^[1]

Perhaps the first recorded instance of intellectual humility is when Socrates (in The Apology) remarked: "Although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is – for he knows nothing, and thinks he knows. I neither know nor think I know."^[1]

Waclaw Bąk et al. identify Socrates as "the ideal example" of intellectual humility. Studies by Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Gordon Allport discuss humility with regard to one's knowledge without using the phrase "intellectual humility.^{[10][check quotation syntax]}Notwithstanding this long history, attention from social and behavioural scientists is much more recent - roughly starting in the mid-2000s.^[11] One of the first focused studies of intellectual humility was conducted by Roberts and Woods in 2003.^[12]

See also

• Open-mindedness – Receptiveness to new ideas
• Skepticism – Doubtful attitude toward knowledge claims
• Conspiracy theory – Attributing events to less-probable plots
• Metacognition – Self-awareness about thinking, higher-order thinking skills
• Curiosity – Quality related to inquisitive thinking
• Humility – Quality of being humble
• Intellectual courage – Quality of willingness to critically analyze one's own strongly held beliefs and conclusions
• Dunning–Kruger effect

Further reading

• "Can Intellectual Humility Save Us from Ourselves?". JSTOR DAILY. JSTOR. 24 January 2024. Seven conversations "pairing scholars of intellectual humility with community leaders to explore manifestations of intellectual humility outside the academy."
• Resnick, Brian (2019). "Intellectual humility: the importance of knowing you might be wrong". Vox.
• Dolan, Eric (2019). "Intellectually humble people tend to possess more knowledge, study finds". Psypost - Psychology News.
• Aberdein, Andrew (2020). "Intellectual Humility and Argumentation". In Alfano, Mark; Lynch, Michael; Tanesini, Alessandra (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Humility. Routledge. pp. 325–334. Retrieved 4 June 2022. Paul is the only theorist in Ritchhart's survey to propose intellectual humility as a critical thinking disposition
• Church, Ian; Samuelson, Peter (2016). Intellectual Humility: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Science. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4742-3675-1.
• Paul, Richard (1990). Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs to Survive in a Rapidly Changing World. Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique, Sonoma State University. pp. 54, 194. ISBN 0944583040. LCCN 90-80195.
• Snow, Nancy E. (2018). "15. Intellectual Humility". In Battaly, Heather (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Virtue Epistemology. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-49528-4.
• Colombo, M., Strangmann, K., Houkes, L., Kostadinova, Z., & Brandt, M. J. (2021). Intellectually Humble, but Prejudiced People. A Paradox of Intellectual Virtue. Review of Philosophy and Psychology. 12, 353–371. doi: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13164-020-00496-4

References

1. Costello, T. H.; Newton, C.; Lin, H.; Pennycook, G. (6 August 2023). "Metacognitive Blindspot in Intellectual Humility Measures". PsyArXiv Preprints. Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) and the Center for Open Science (COS). doi:10.31234/osf.io/gux95. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
2. Hannon, Michael (20 July 2020). "Chapter 7: Intellectual humility and the curse of knowledge". In Tanesini, Alessandra; Lynch, Michael (eds.). Polarisation, Arrogance, and Dogmatism: Philosophical Perspectives. Routledge. pp. 104–119. ISBN 978-0367260859. Retrieved 18 February 2024.
3. Welker, Keith M.; Duong, Mylien; Rakhshani, Andrew; Dieffenbach, Macrina; Coleman, Peter; Peter, Jonathan (15 June 2023). "The Online Educational Program 'Perspectives' Improves Affective Polarization, Intellectual Humility, and Conflict Management" (PDF). Journal of Social and Political Psychology. 11 (2): 439. doi:10.5964/jspp.10651. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
4. Leary, M.R. (2022). "Intellectual Humility as a Route to More Accurate Knowledge, Better Decisions, and Less Conflict". American Journal of Health Promotion. 36 (8): 1401–1404. doi:10.1177/08901171221125326b. PMID 36305505. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
5. Plous, Scott (1993). The psychology of judgement and decision making (1st ed.). McGraw-Hill Education. p. 217. ISBN 0070504776.
6. Malmendier, Ulrike; Tate, Geoffrey (2008). "Who makes acquisitions? CEO overconfidence and the market's reaction". Journal of Financial Economics. 89 (1): 20–43. doi:10.1016/j.jfineco.2007.07.002. S2CID 12354773.
7. Twardawski, Torsten; Kind, Axel (2023). "Board overconfidence in mergers and acquisitions". Journal of Business Research. 165 (1). doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114026.
8. Pärnamets, Philip; Alfano, Mark; Van Bavel, Jay; Ross, Robert (22 July 2022). "Open-mindedness predicts support for public health measures and disbelief in conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic". PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/2ujra. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
9. Krumrei-Mancuso, Elizabeth; Rice Begin, Malika (28 October 2022). ""Cultivating Intellectual Humility in Leaders: Potential Benefits, Risks, and Practical Tools"". American Journal of Health Promotion. 36 (8): 1399–1420. doi:10.1177/08901171221125326. PMID 36305499.
10. Bąk, Wacław; Wójtowicz, Bartosz; Kutnik, Jan (2022). "Intellectual humility: an old problem in a new psychological perspective". Current Issues in Personality Psychology. 10 (2): 85–97. doi:10.5114/cipp.2021.106999. ISSN 2353-4192. PMC 10535625. PMID 38013918. S2CID 237964643.
11. Hoyle, Rick (20 July 2023). "Chapter 6: Forms of Intellectual Humility and Their Associations with Features of KNowledge, Beliefs, and Opinions". In Ottati, Victor; Stern, Chadly (eds.). Open-Mindedness and Dogmatism in a Polarized World. Oxford University Press. pp. 101–119. ISBN 978-0197655467. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
12. Haggard, Megan C. (December 2016). Humility as Intellectual Virtue: Assessment and Uses of a Limitations-Owning Perspective of Intellectual Humility (PDF). Baylor University (PhD thesis). p. 2.