The Importance of Intellectual Humility for Political Science Research

• In Event: The Role and Effects of Confidence and Humility in Politics

Abstract

People vary in the extent to which they recognize the possibility that their political beliefs might be wrong. Intellectual humility is the extent to which individuals acknowledge that their information is limited and their beliefs might someday turn out to be incorrect. Recent research in social psychology shows that intellectual humility is an important pro-social character trait that increases: openness to new information, tolerance towards opposing viewpoints, and objective information processing. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the importance of intellectual humility for political science research. To that end, I develop a theory explaining why increasing intellectual humility will result in less extreme political attitudes and less negativity toward people who hold opposing perspectives. Using original survey data, I find support for this theory on three prominent and distinct topics in American politics: presidential approval, legalization of marijuana, and free trade. On all three topics, intellectual humility predicted less extreme attitudes and less negative feelings towards the other side. The article concludes with a discussion of some ways to increase intellectual humility and promising avenues for future political science research.

Author

• Glen Smith, University of North Georgia