The Hidden Power of Intellectual Humility
The 2008 financial crisis was undoubtedly a convoluted event in history. Despite its complexity, in its aftermath, many economists aimed to provide bulletproof explanations for what went wrong. Russ Roberts, a notable economist, contributed his own explanation through an essay and subsequent book, both titled Gambling With Other People’s Money. Yet he later revised his essay, admitting that while he still believed in his own theory, he is now more open to other explanations, and is continually learning more about issues that he was supposed to be an expert on.1
In an interview, when asked why he changed his mind, Roberts said: “I became deeply aware of my ignorance. I had no idea how the housing market worked … I’ve become more epistemologically humble, which is a fancy word for saying ‘I don’t know.'”2
This one statement highlights a subject of interest in science today: intellectual humility, or “considering that one might be wrong.” Turns out, there is a surprising amount of benefit to this taking approach.
References
- Roberts, R. (2010, April 27). Gambling with Other People’s Money. Mercatus Center. https://www.mercatus.org/publications/financial-markets/gambling-other-peoples-money
- Historically Thinking. (2019, February 20). Episode 99: Russ Roberts on the 2008 Financial Crisis, Changing Your Mind, and Intellectual Humility | Historically Thinking. Retrieved September 27, 2020, from https://historicallythinking.org/episode-99-russ-roberts-on-the-2008-financial-crisis-changing-your-mind-and-intellectual-humility/
- Squad. (2018, December 13). Dunning-Kruger Effect: Definition, Test, Examples & Quiz. Science Terms. https://scienceterms.net/psychology/dunning-kruger-effect/
- Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- Akbareian. (2015). The blue and black (or white and gold) dress: Actual colour, brand, and price details revealed | The Independent | The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/dress-actual-colour-brand-and-price-details-revealed-10074686.html
- Rohrer, J. M., Tierney, W., Uhlmann, E. L., DeBruine, L. M., Heyman, T., Jones, B. C., Schmukle, S. C., Silberzahn, R., Willén, R. M., Carlsson, R., Lucas, R. E., Strand, J. F., Vazire, S., Witt, J. K., Zentall, T. R., Chabris, C., & Yarkoni, T. (2018). Putting the Self in Self-Correction: Findings from the Loss-of-Confidence Project [Preprint]. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/exmb2
- Resnick, B. (2019, January 4). Intellectual humility: The importance of knowing you might be wrong—Vox. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/1/4/17989224/intellectual-humility-explained-psychology-replication
- Porter, T., Schumann, K., Selmeczy, D., & Trzesniewski, K. (2020). Intellectual humility predicts mastery behaviors when learning. Learning and Individual Differences, 80, 101888. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2020.101888
- Deffler, S. A., Leary, M. R., & Hoyle, R. H. (2016). Knowing what you know: Intellectual humility and judgments of recognition memory. Personality and Individual Differences, 96, 255–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.016
- Colombo, M., Strangmann, K., Houkes, L., Kostadinova, Z., & Brandt, M. J. (2020). Intellectually Humble, but Prejudiced People. A Paradox of Intellectual Virtue. Review of Philosophy and Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-020-00496-4
- Lu, J. G., Hafenbrack, A. C., Eastwick, P. W., Wang, D. J., Maddux, W. W., & Galinsky, A. D. (2017). “Going out” of the box: Close intercultural friendships and romantic relationships spark creativity, workplace innovation, and entrepreneurship. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(7), 1091–1108. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000212
- Mochari, I. (2015, September 29). Steve Jobs’s Early Advice to Mark Zuckerberg: Go East. Inc.Com. https://www.inc.com/ilan-mochari/visit-india-creativity.html
- Nasser, F. (2019, April 12). The Power of Intellectual Humility | Farah Nasser | TEDxDonMills. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjXw_iFOMc
- Weidman, A. C., Cheng, J. T., & Tracy, J. L. (2018). The psychological structure of humility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114(1), 153–178. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000112
- DeGrasse Tyson, N. (2020). Cognitive Bias | Neil deGrasse Tyson Teaches Scientific Thinking and Communication | MasterClass. https://www.masterclass.com/classes/neil-degrasse-tyson-teaches-scientific-thinking-and-communication/chapters/cognitive-bias#transcript
- Fetterman, A. K., Curtis, S., Carre, J., & Sassenberg, K. (2019). On the willingness to admit wrongness: Validation of a new measure and an exploration of its correlates. Personality and Individual Differences, 138, 193–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.10.002
About the Author
Kaylee Somerville
Kaylee is a research and teaching assistant at the University of Calgary in the areas of finance, entrepreneurship, and workplace harassment. Holding international experience in events, marketing, and consulting, Kaylee hopes to use behavioral research to help individuals at work. She is particularly interested in the topics of gender, leadership, and productivity. Kaylee completed her Bachelor of Commerce degree from the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary.
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