Research on intellectual humility (IH) has developed quickly in the past few years. Although there is considerable extant research showing that IH can have a positive effect on people’s individual lives, relationships, and communities, there has been little research that has explored how to promote or develop IH. To fill that gap, we will plan to explore the following Big Questions: (1) What are the psychological mechanisms responsible for enhancing intellectual humble behavior? (2) In what domains, applications, and contexts are interventions most beneficial?
To address these questions, we will pursue two primary agendas. First, we will organize a request for proposals (RFP) that will fund approximately 10-12 projects across two tracks (Mechanisms of Change, Interventions). Funded projects will involve early career scholars and will study how IH works when it is under duress due to commitment-related biases.
Second, our team will conduct three internal projects. In Project 1, we develop a set of interventions based on Acceptance Commitment Therapy (Intervention Track). In Project 2, we study IH in religious leaders using a longitudinal design (Mechanism of Change Track). In Project 3, we develop an IH intervention focused on how leaders make decisions (Intervention Track).
The overall project will produce at least 45 empirical research journal articles, 45 professional conference presentations, and 15 interventions. We also develop an early career network that will sustain the work of the project into the future. The impact of this project will be to provide empirically-tested and publicly available effective tools that can be included in future intervention efforts to cultivate IH. Ultimately, we hope that our work on promoting IH will enable individuals and communities to work together in a more civil manner across important differences such as culture, religion, and politics.
