The Dunning Kruger effect famously describes a phenomenon whereby those with low ability lack the fundamental ability to assess their capabilities, and therefore usually have a much higher belief in their talents than is warranted.
A new study from Pepperdine University underlines this by revealing that people who are intellectually humble tend to be smarter. The study is interesting as it can be easy to associate intellectual humility with uncertainty about one’s beliefs, and therefore weakness in terms of decision making.
The researchers quizzed around 1,200 volunteers across five distinct experiments, and found that intellectual humility was most associated with what’s known as crystallized rather than fluid intelligence. It was also linked to a greater ability to process general knowledge.
“The observed links between intellectual humility and possessing more general knowledge may be explained by the finding that intellectual humility was associated with more accurate assessment of one’s general knowledge,” the researchers explain. “That is, knowing (and being willing to admit!) what you don’t know may be the first step to seeking new knowledge.”
Intellectual humility
Across each of the studies, those who tended to think highly of their own intellect, nearly always overestimated their abilities, whether in terms of vocabulary, reasoning, arithmetic or spatial abilities. What was perhaps most important was the finding that intellectually humble people are more inclined to have an open mind and be willing to change their views based upon new information.
What’s more, they were also more likely to enjoy undertaking difficult tasks and were more inclined to actively seek out new knowledge and experiences, all of which are highly valuable characteristics in our modern, uncertain world.
For intellectually humble people, the beauty of learning was in the search for new knowledge itself rather than any possible external gratification, such as promotions or exams.
“We found intellectual humility to relate to a number of other variables that might facilitate learning. These included reflective thinking, need for cognition, intellectual engagement, intellectual curiosity, intellectual openness, open-minded thinking, and an intrinsic motivation to learn for the sake of gaining knowledge,” the authors explain.
The findings mirror those of a previous study conducted by Duke University into intellectual humility. The researchers conducted four distinct experiments to examine the trait in more depth. For instance, one experiment sought to test whether we assess the character of someone negatively when we disagree with a basic position they take (the intellectually humble do so significantly less than their peers).
The intellectually humble also seem to do better at evaluating evidence. In one experiment, they were much more effective at determining quality, fact-based arguments from weaker ones.
This carried through to how we view others. For instance, if a politician changed their opinion in light of new evidence, the intellectually humble would regard that as a strength, whilst others would criticize them for ‘flip-flopping’.
Wide ranging benefits
The benefits of intellectual humility have been proven in the forecasting world, but the authors believe that greater intellectual humility can bring benefits in a great many areas.
“If you think about what’s been wrong in Washington for a long time, it’s a whole lot of people who are very intellectually arrogant about the positions they have, on both sides of the aisle,” they say. “But even in interpersonal relationships, the minor squabbles we have with our friends, lovers and coworkers are often about relatively trivial things where we are convinced that our view of the world is correct and their view is wrong.”
It also has significant possibilities in the business world too.
“If you’re sitting around a table at a meeting and the boss is very low in intellectual humility, he or she isn’t going to listen to other people’s suggestions,” they say. “Yet we know that good leadership requires broadness of perspective and taking as many perspectives into account as possible.”
