Cognitive determinants of humility
Introduction
Many studies have explored how the motivations, emotions, and social interactions of individuals may shape their humility. Fewer studies, however, have examined how cognitive attributes, such as intelligence or creativity, may affect humility.
Nevertheless, as Zmigrod et al. (2019) both proposed and demonstrated, cognitive attributes are central to humility—especially intellectual humility. That is, to demonstrate intellectual humility, individuals need to
- recognise which of their beliefs or judgments may be biased rather than substantiated,
- withhold these beliefs or judgments until additional information is collected, and
- integrate additional information with past experience to update beliefs or judgments.
Therefore, to exhibit intellectual humility, individuals must have developed the capacity to shift their beliefs or judgments in response to evidence. To achieve this goal effectively and frequently
- some individuals may utilise the specific ability to shift the contents of their working memory effectively, called cognitive flexibility,
- other individuals may utilise more generic, intellectual skills—skills that can be utilised for many other purposes as well.
Empirical illustration
Accordingly, either cognitive flexibility, general intelligence, or both may enable intellectual humility. Zmigrod et al. (2019) thus conducted a study to corroborate this possibility. In this study, about 100 participants completed a series of measures including
- the comprehensive intellectual humility scale—to gauge four distinct facets of intellectual humility,
- the alternative uses test, in which individuals need to identify as many uses of various common items, such as bricks, as possible (cf., Guilford, 1967); the number of distinct categories mentioned represents cognitive flexibility (Addis et al., 2016; Chermahini & Hommel, 2010)
- the semantic verbal fluency test, in which individuals generate as many words as possible, within two minutes, that correspond to a category, such as “things on wheels” (Tombaugh et al., 1999; Troyer et al., 1997),
- the Raven’s standard progressive matrices task to measure general intelligence.
The findings revealed that both cognitive flexibility and, to a lesser extent, general intelligence were positively associated with intellectual humility, consistent with the hypotheses. The association between cognitive flexibility and intellectual humility was more pronounced when general intelligence was low. Similarly, the association between general intelligence and intellectual humility was more pronounced when cognitive flexibility was low—even after the false positive rate across multiple comparisons was controlled (Esarey & Sumner, 2018). As this pattern implies, either cognitive flexibility or general intelligence is sufficient to enable intellectual humility.
Cognitive flexibility was associated with some, but not all, facets of intellectual humility. Specifically, cognitive flexibility was positively related to
- respect for the viewpoints of other people, exemplified by items like “I can respect others, even if I disagree with them in important ways”).
- openness to revising viewpoints, exemplified by items like “I am open to revising my important beliefs in the face of new information”).
A sense of distance from challenges or problems
Introduction
When individuals experience a sense of distance from some problem or challenge—and, for example, imagine the situation from the perspective of someone else—they are more likely to exhibit intellectual humility and other manifestations of wisdom. This sense of distance may enable individuals to consider multiple, and indeed conflicting, perspectives. Participants may thus recognise their beliefs could be incorrect.
Kross and Grossmann, two academics at the University of Michigan, uncovered this possibility in 2012. In one study, 57 American participants, all college students or recent graduates, were invited to discuss how the American recession might affect their career. These individuals were prompted to imagine the effect of this recession from the perspective of a distant observer, as if watching this event from the eyes of another person, or from their own perspective. Next, two judges evaluated the degree to which participants, while discussing this recession
- acknowledged the limitations of their knowledge, epitomising intellectual humility, and
- acknowledged the world is in flux and the circumstances may change significantly over time, called dialectical thinking: a facet of wise reasoning.
As hypothesised, if participants imagined the effect of this recession from the perspective of a distant observer, they were more likely to demonstrate intellectual humility as well as dialectical thinking (Kross & Grossmann, 2012).
A second study replicated this finding. In this study, 54 American participants read about the policies of the Democrats and Republicans. Next, these individuals depicted how a specific political issue might evolve over the next few years if the candidate of the party they do not support wins the next election. Specifically,
- to elicit a sense of distance, some participants described how a citizen of Iceland would depict this change,
- in the control condition, some participants described how an American citizen would depict this change.
If participants had experienced a sense of distance, their depiction of this political issue exhibited greater intellectual humility and dialectical thinking. Furthermore, their attitudes towards these political issues shifted during the study, epitomising intellectual humility.
Smith, Dorfman, et al. (2025), in a longitudinal study, confirmed this notion that a sense of distance may foster intellectual humility and other facets of wisdom. Every three months over a year, participants described their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours during a recent adversity. Next, they answered questions about this adversity, designed to assess
- the degree to which they engaged in various hallmarks of wisdom, such as intellectual humility, epitomised by questions like “I double-checked whether my opinion on the situation might be incorrect”, the pursuit of a compromise, the tendency to adopt the perspective of someone else, and a recognition of uncertainty or change,
- the extent to which they experienced a sense of distance from the adversity, rather than immersed themselves in this problem exemplified by items like “I wondered what I would think if I was somebody else watching the situation”,
- their appraisal of the event, such as the degree to which this adversity was negative, challenging, extraordinary, and emotionally significant (see Luhmann et al., 2021),
- their satisfaction with life and personality.
As the findings revealed, individuals who tended to distance themselves from the adversity at one time were more likely to report intellectual humility and other facets of wisdom at the subsequent time (Smith, Dorfman et al., 2025). Likewise, other studies have also confirmed this pattern of observations. For example, as Grossmann, Dorfman, et al. (2021) revealed, if people write diary entries in third person, rather than first person—instilling a sense of distance from problems and events—they are more likely to exhibit intellectual humility and other hallmarks of wise reasoning.
A sense of distance from challenges or problems: Do adversities promote or inhibit humility and wisdom
Many people assume that individuals derive humility and wisdom from adversities, such as divorce or bankruptcy. Yet, if acute and distressing enough, these adversities might instead potentially incite some hallmarks of post-traumatic stress. That is, individuals may become more vigilant, wary, and distrustful. Because of this distrust, these individuals may dismiss, rather than respect, advice or opinions that diverge from their beliefs, diminishing humility. People who can maintain a sense of distance from these adversities, however, may not be as susceptible to this post-traumatic stress.
Dorfman et al. (2022) conducted a longitudinal study that substantiates this possibility. In this study, North American participants answered a series of questions at four times, each separated by about 2.5 months. At each time,
- participants described the most significant adversity they had experienced over the past two months—such as a retrenchment, illness, divorce, conflict, or accident,
- next, these individuals applied the Event Reconstruction Method (Schwarz et al., 2009) to remember, visualise, and describe this event as vividly as possible,
- then, participants answered the Event Characteristics Questionnaire (Luhmann et al., 2021), designed to characterise the degree to which this adversity was unpleasant, challenging, significant, extra-ordinary, unpredictable, and beyond the control of individuals,
- these individuals also completed the Situated Wise Reasoning Scale (Brienza et al., 2018) to ascertain the degree to which they applied four strategies that epitomise wisdom: the pursuit of compromises, the tendency to consider the event from the perspective of someone else, an openness to other perspectives, and intellectual humility, epitomised by items like “I double-checked whether my opinion on the situation might be incorrect”,
- finally, participants indicated the degree to which they distanced themselves from this adversity, answering questions like “I asked myself what other people might think or feel if they were watching the conflict”.
As the findings revealed, social conflicts in particular were inversely associated with subsequent levels of intellectual humility as well as other facets of wisdom. Social conflicts thus appeared to impair humility and wisdom. However, if individuals distanced themselves from their adversities more than usual, this association between social conflicts and wisdom dissipated. That is, this approach, in which individuals distance themselves from their adversities, appears to protect the intellectual humility and wisdom of people from traumatic events (Dorfman et al., 2022). Nevertheless, future research is warranted, because this pattern of findings did not extend to other kinds of adversities. In addition, variations across individuals, rather than across time, in this tendency to distance were not significantly associated with intellectual humility and wisdom.
A sense of distance from challenges or problems: Contemplating events from a future perspective
Sometimes, individuals consider an adverse event, such as a conflict or retrenchment, from a future perspective. For example, they might consider how they may feel about this event one year from now. As research has revealed, when individuals adopt this future perspective, they tend to feel a sense of distance from this event—a feeling that can foster intellectual humility and other facets of wisdom.
To illustrate, in one study, conducted by Zhang et al. (2024), 154 students, from Hangzhou Normal University, first attempted to recall and to visualise a recent interpersonal conflict as well as answer a series of questions about this conflict, such as when this event transpired. Next, half the participants were prompted to contemplate this event from the perspective they would adopt one year from now. To illustrate
- they were asked how they may think about this event one year from now and how they might respond to the same conflict then,
- participants were then asked to indicate the strategies they might apply in one year when contemplating this strategy—answering questions about the degree to which they would exhibit intellectual humility, such as “I would double-check whether my opinion on the situation might be incorrect”, as well as the extent to which they would compromise, consider the perspective of someone else, and identify multiple ways the problem may unfold.
In the control condition, participants answered the same questions, except from their perspective now instead of one year in the future. As hypothesised, when individuals contemplated this conflict from their perspective in the future, they were more likely to exhibit intellectual humility as well as several other facets of wisdom. Two independent judges also rated the responses of these participants as greater in intellectual humility. As a subsequent study revealed, a perspective from many years in the future, such as 30 years, was especially likely to foster intellectual humility and wisdom (Zhang et al., 2024).