Our project consists of a suite of four studies to examine the development of intellectual humility (IH) as a virtue. We use Aristotle’s concept of virtue as a balance between deficiency and excess. For IH, the balance is between over and under confidence: knowing when to seek more information and when to stand one’s ground. Our pilot work shows that, by age 6, children like people who accept correction from experts (teachers), but not those who capitulate to non-expert peers. Does this demonstrate the balance one would expect if IH is seen as an epistemic virtue?
We first investigate whether children truly value IH as a character virtue by asking whether they positively evaluate IH, while spurning unwarranted deference. That is, do children like people who capitulate to more knowledgeable partners but dislike those who capitulate to less knowledgeable partners? We then explore a novel hypothesis focusing on how reputational concerns impede IH. That is, we suggest that even people who value IH may be wary of demonstrating a lack of knowledge if they expect others to subsequently evaluate them as incompetent.
To test this prediction, we first gauge children’s evaluations of people who engage in an important but understudied IH behavior: asking questions (to seek needed information). We predict that children may be reluctant to show IH by asking questions themselves because they believe that admitting a lack of knowledge will harm their reputation.
Finally, we probe whether decreasing reputational risks (through simple interventions) enables children to express IH by asking questions. We will publish academic articles and theoretical pieces aimed at increasing understanding of, interest in, and research on, the development of IH. Our overarching research aim is to catalyze interest in IH by advancing knowledge about the potential connection between IH and reputation management in order to foster intellectual curiosity across the lifespan.
