Motivating Open-Mindedness and Intellectual Humility in Adolescence

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 1:45 pm - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Intervention Innovations: Leveraging and Learning From Motivational Processes

Abstract

In an era marked by increasing division and polarization, equipping students to engage constructively with opposing viewpoints is essential. In a randomized field experiment, high school students (N = 392) who completed a brief (5-min) intervention that respected their autonomy, appealed to beyond-the-self aims, and connected with their values, read more about the opposing view and showed more intellectual humility (i.e., awareness of limitations) about their views relative to students in the control group. The target intervention also produced consistently larger effects than a brief informational intervention, suggesting that it was more motivating. Findings suggest that youths’ open-mindedness and intellectual humility are malleable and hint at a scalable approach for increasing openness and constructive dialogue in adolescence.

Authors

• Tenelle Porter, Rowan University

• Jon M. Valant, Brookings

• Daniel Newark, HEC Paris