Since childhood, we have been accustomed to think that it is a shame not to know something. We do not ask for help when it is difficult for us to cope with an incomprehensible task, or we hide gaps in erudition, maintaining a cultural conversation. What happens if we confess to not knowing something?
“I disagree with myself,” said a third grader during a discussion about odd and even numbers in math class. He thought that the number six was both even and odd. When one of the classmates made a counterargument, he acknowledged her point of view and replied: “I didn’t think about it. Thanks for telling me.» He demonstrated intellectual humility: he recognized the limitations of his knowledge and valued the ideas of other people. In our culture, confidence is admired and mistakes are judged. So his recognition is worth a lot. But how does this affect the learning process? Helping or creating benefits?
The answer on the surface is no. University professors, some of the most educated people in the world, do not generally share this quality, nor do many successful scientists, administrators, doctors, artists, and political leaders. But as Nobel laureate astrophysicist Subramanyan Chandrasekhar observed, self-righteousness can stymie learning, discovery, and progress.
My colleagues and I set up an experiment to test how this quality affects learning outcomes.
Students with developed intellectual humility are more likely to use effective learning strategies
The students were asked to rate themselves on a set of statements such as “I am willing to admit if I don’t know something” or “I will admit when someone else knows more than me on a certain topic.” Psychologists wanted to find out if this intellectual modesty would affect learning motivation, learning strategies, or assessment. We also wanted to see if teachers would notice differences between students with different levels of this quality.
Students with developed intellectual humility were more motivated to learn and more likely to use effective learning strategies. For example, after reading a chapter in a textbook, ask yourself questions to check your understanding. In addition, they completed the school year with higher marks in mathematics. The teachers were not shown the results of the survey. However, they described these students as more involved in the learning process.
The second stage of the experiment was carried out in the laboratory. We wanted to temporarily increase the subjects’ modesty levels and see if this would encourage participants to ask for help on tasks they would not be able to do on their own. The first half of the participants were given an article to read: why it’s good to admit when you don’t know something. Thus, they were tuned to a higher level of intellectual modesty. The other half of the participants read an article about how useful it is to be confident in your knowledge.
After reading, we measured intellectual humility in both groups. The first group showed a higher level. On the next task, 85% of them asked for extra help when they couldn’t do it on their own. The participants of the second group asked for help only in 65% of cases.
This experiment showed that we can improve this quality of students and thus change their learning behavior. Since it provides a set of benefits that are important for learning, the question arose of how to develop it.
Intellectual modesty helps to learn from an opponent during an argument or reduce the prevalence of dogmatism.
We hypothesized that a growth mindset, that is, the belief that intelligence can change over time, will help. Its opposite is the fixed mindset. The fixed mindset is the belief that intelligence is permanent and given from birth. Logically, intellectual humility is easier to develop for people with a growth mindset. When people adopt a growth mindset, they begin to believe that even if they don’t know something, they can learn it and increase their intelligence. They believe they can become smarter, and humility is one strategy that helps with that.
To test our hypothesis, we set up an experiment. The results showed that when we temporarily helped participants adopt a growth mindset about intelligence, they experienced an increase in intellectual humility. This means that teaching students the growth mindset is one way to increase emotional humility and reap the benefits that come with it.
Given the close relationship between the growth mindset and intellectual humility, it is logical to ask: are the benefits due to this quality or is it all about the growth mindset? We believe that intellectual humility helps people more than a growth mindset. For example, it helps to learn from an opponent during an argument or even reduce the prevalence of dogmatism.
Empirical research proves that intellectual humility helps in the learning process and contributes to overcoming ideological differences. Not only schoolchildren, but each of us can learn something new if from time to time he says: «I do not agree with myself.»