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
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]
More accuracy and less overclaiming on critical thinking tasks.[5]
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."[6] It has been blamed for lawsuits, strikes, wars, poor corporate acquisitions,[7][8] and stock market bubbles and crashes.
A comprehensive meta-analysis, encompassing 54 studies and 33,814 participants, reveals that IH correlates with reduced susceptibility to misinformation and conspiracy theories.[9] Notably, the effects appear more pronounced in behavioral outcomes than in attitudinal measures, highlighting IH's potential as a target for interventions aimed at combating the spread of false information.
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.[10]
Potential Limitations
Some research suggests that traits such as intellectual humility might lead to response bias, potentially causing individuals to be overly cautious or skeptical when evaluating any type of information (regardless of veracity).[11][12] However, a recent study found that intellectual humility was associated with improved misinformation discernment and metacognitive awareness, without leading to a significant response bias.[13] This finding suggests that intellectually humble individuals are better at distinguishing between true and false claims, not because they are inherently more skeptical, but due to enhanced discernment abilities.
Intellectual humility measures
A number of different methods and scales to measure humility exists [14], the most two prominent types of which are the self-reported measures and the informant rating measures:
Self-reported measures:
Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale
Intelectual Humility Scale
Limitations Owning Intellectual Humility Scale
Specific Intellectual Humility Scale
Informant rating measures:
McElroy Intellectual Humility Scale
Expressed Intellectual Humility Scale
Other measures:
Dispositional Humility Scale
Humility-Arrogance Implicit Association
Facial Experssion Humility Test
Acquisition
A study found that users of an online tool could experience a small- to medium-sized increase in their intellectual humility.[3]
Activities with some empirical support and/or theoretical foundation for increasing intellectual humility[15]
Exercise with rationale
Sample applications
Approaching a challenging situation from a third-person rather than a first-person perspective: Thinking about a situation from a third-person perspective creates psychological distance, which increases objectivity regarding the situation. It also shifts people from an individual to a relational focus.
Approaching a challenging interpersonal situation from the vantage point of an outside observer.
Resolving intellectual disagreements via discussions in which participants argue only from each other's perspectives. Although different from a third-person perspective, this exercise often leads to greater understanding of other people's viewpoints.
Shifting towards a growth mindset of intelligence: The belief that intelligence can be developed and grow rather than that it is a trait that cannot be changed. People who hold a growth mindset of intelligence may feel less threatened to acknowledge what they do not yet understand and feel more comfortable acknowledging the intellectual strengths of others.
Creating shared learning opportunities in which each participant reviews a segment of a work and discusses the key points of each segment.
Critical evaluation of the limitations of one's knowledge regarding particular topics or situations: When people assess the limits of their knowledge in a particular situation or topic, it can make their general intellectual humility more salient in the moment and on the topic in question.
Critical evaluation to determine whether one's own views could be wrong, whether any relevant information is being overlooked, and whether one's views may be changed if additional information is presented.
Identifification of past cases where acknowledging flaws in one's thinking or ideas resulted in positive change: Thinking about practical examples of intellectual humility brings this concept out of the theoretical so as to promote applied understanding. This exercise can minimize fears pertinent to intellectual humility by highlighting the ways in which it has resulted in positive outcomes for a person in the past.
Identification of opinions held in the past that have since changed. Consideration of views and policies that were supported by reason at the time, but that one has come to reject as false or unhelpful.
Recognition of general human intellectual fallibility: Acknowledging that all humans have intellectual fallibility can help people realize that they are no exception. This allows people to embrace intellectual humility as an aspect of their shared humanity and may help leaders accept their own and their followers’ intellectual fallibility.
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.[16][check quotation syntax]
Notwithstanding this long history, attention from social and behavioural scientists is much more recent - roughly starting in the mid-2000s.[17] One of the first focused studies of intellectual humility was conducted by Roberts and Woods in 2003.[18]
"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."
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
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. ISBN0944583040. LCCN90-80195.
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
