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Predictors and consequences of intellectual humility

Nature Reviews Psychology volume 1, pages 524–536 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

In a time of societal acrimony, psychological scientists have turned to a possible antidote — intellectual humility. Interest in intellectual humility comes from diverse research areas, including researchers studying leadership and organizational behaviour, personality science, positive psychology, judgement and decision-making, education, culture, and intergroup and interpersonal relationships. In this Review, we synthesize empirical approaches to the study of intellectual humility. We critically examine diverse approaches to defining and measuring intellectual humility and identify the common element: a meta-cognitive ability to recognize the limitations of one’s beliefs and knowledge. After reviewing the validity of different measurement approaches, we highlight factors that influence intellectual humility, from relationship security to social coordination. Furthermore, we review empirical evidence concerning the benefits and drawbacks of intellectual humility for personal decision-making, interpersonal relationships, scientific enterprise and society writ large. We conclude by outlining initial attempts to boost intellectual humility, foreshadowing possible scalable interventions that can turn intellectual humility into a core interpersonal, institutional and cultural value.

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Fig. 1: Conceptual representation of intellectual humility.
Fig. 2: Cultural, interpersonal and individual level threats to intellectual humility.
Fig. 3: Psychological strategies to boost intellectual humility.

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Acknowledgements

The present research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (doctoral scholarship 767-2020-2395 to A.E. and Insight grant 435-2014-0685 to I.G.), by a postgraduate scholarship-doctoral grant PGSD3-547482-2020 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (to E.A.M.), by an Early Researcher award ER16-12-169 from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (to I.G.), by the John Templeton Foundation (grant 61942 to T.P., grant 61514 to E.J. and grant 62260 to I.G.) and by the Templeton World Charity Foundation (grant TWCF0355 to E.J. and I.G.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Tenelle Porter

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Abdo Elnakouri, Ethan A. Meyers, Takuya Shibayama & Igor Grossmann

  3. Department of Psychology and Program for Leadership and Character, Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, NC, USA

    Eranda Jayawickreme

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  1. Tenelle Porter
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  2. Abdo Elnakouri
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  6. Igor Grossmann
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Contributions

I.G. conceived the idea for the Review. The authors contributed equally to the conceptual development of the article. T.P., A.E., T.S. and I.G. wrote the first draft. All authors revised and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Igor Grossmann.

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Nature Reviews Psychology thanks Mark Alfano, Cory Clark and Alexa Tullett for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Porter, T., Elnakouri, A., Meyers, E.A. et al. Predictors and consequences of intellectual humility. Nat Rev Psychol 1, 524–536 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-022-00081-9

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