Beliefs About Intelligence and Intellectual Humility

• In Event: Poster Session 8
  In Poster Session: Goals, Beliefs, Attitudes, and Metacognitive States

Abstract

Intellectual humility (IH) is an innovative educational construct that involves open-mindedness, respectfulness and eagerness to learn. In three studies, we tested our prediction that IH is enhanced by an incremental theory—the belief that intelligence is a malleable trait that can be cultivated, and hindered by an entity theory—the belief that intelligence is a fixed trait that makes some people intellectually superior to others. In the first two studies (Ns = 90; 160), we show that higher IH is associated with a more incremental theory, more listening, less arguing and less derogating another’s intelligence during a disagreement. In study three, we experimentally induce an incremental or entity theory to examine whether an incremental theory enhances IH.

Authors

• Tenelle Porter, Stanford University

• Karina Schumann, Stanford University

• Carol Dweck, Stanford University