People With Greater Intellectual Humility Have Upper General Knowledge

Smart people are not afraid to say “I don’t know.”

In the age of social networks and rolling information, there’s a continuous pressure to be in the know, always available with an aperçus or two (2).

Today, intellectual humility, therefore, feels more significant than ever– having the insight and honesty to hold your hands up and say you are ignorant or inexpert regarding a matter.

Psychologists are responding by taking an increasing interest in intellectual humility, including searching for its consequences for learning and also the thinking styles that support it. For a brand-new paper in The Journal of Positive Psychology, a group led by Elizabeth Krumrei-Mancuso have continued this endeavor, showing, among other things, that intellectual humility correlates with superior general knowledge. This is a logical outcome because, as the researchers write, “put simply, learning requires the humility to realize one has something to learn”.

Krumrei-Mancuso and also her colleagues conducted five studies in all, attempting to find out more concerning to the links between intellectual humbleness and knowledge acquisition; between intellectual humbleness and meta-knowledge (insight into one’s own knowledge); and lastly between intellectual humbleness and also other thinking styles.

A strength and a faintness of the research is the use of two different measures of intellectual humbleness. Some studies involved a shorter questionnaire examining being a “know-it-all” (through arrangement or not with statements like “I know just regarding everything there is to recognize”) and intellectual openness (through agreement or not with statements like “I may learn from other people”).

In contrast, other studies used a more recently developed, more comprehensive 22-item action incorporating questions regarding cognitions, emotions, and behaviors rep of intellectual humility (such as being accepting of criticism of one’s essential beliefs; being ready to change one’s mind; and respect for others’ viewpoints). This use of various measures makes for a more comprehensive, varied assessment of intellectual humility but also impedes comparison between the studies.

The findings concerning knowledge acquisition were mixed. While an on-line study involving 604 adults (and using the more comprehensive measure of intellectual humility) found the abovementioned link between greater intellectual humbleness and superior general knowledge, another involving university students (and the briefer intellectual humbleness questionnaire) found that those superior in intellectual humbleness achieved poorer grades

Possibly the last result arose because the higher-achieving students utilized their objectively upper grades to judge their intellectual ability as superior, not having had the opportunity yet in life to challenge their intellectual fallibility (however, as mentioned, the use of different steps across the studies makes complex any interpretation of the mixed results).

In terms of insight, greater markers in intellectual humility were less likely to declare knowledge they did not have (the researchers tested this by evaluating participants’ willingness to claim familiarity with entirely fictitious facts that they can not possibly know), and they also tended to ignore their efficiency on a cognitive ability test.

Meanwhile, other thinking styles and constructs that are associated with greater intellectual humbleness included being more inclined to reflective thinking, having more “need for cognition” (enjoying thinking hard and problem-solving), greater curiosity, and open-minded thinking. More intellectual humbleness was also associated with less “social vigilantism,” defined as seeing other people’s beliefs as inferior.

While the brand-new findings “replicate and extend previous studies making use of different measures of intellectual humility,” it is fair to say there remains a great deal we do not yet know about intellectual humility.

Maybe most important is the lack of longitudinal research to establish causality– for instance, we do not yet know if greater general knowledge and open-mindedness fosters intellectual humility or if intellectual humility precedes and promotes knowledge and curiosity. Most likely, the causal organizations between these constructs are complex and two-way; however, at the moment, if we are honest, we just do not know.

Read the original article on big think.