Is There a Dark Side to Humility? Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Evidence for Existential Costs of Humility

ABSTRACT

Previous research has highlighted the benefits of holding one’s views with humility. However, might intellectual humility surrounding existential beliefs also incur some psychological costs? To advance research on intellectual humility about existential concerns (IH-E), we conducted four studies (N = 1,700) to examine potential costs of humility. Study 1 (N = 203) revealed that IH-E was associated with greater death-related anxiety. Study 2 (N = 1,151) replicated this association in a larger sample. In Study 3 (N = 77), a longitudinal study of first-year college students revealed that IH-E predicted negative changes in religious well-being three and six weeks later. In Study 4 (N = 269), a year-long longitudinal study of religious “ex-vangelicals” revealed that IH-E predicted religious disbelief and lower well-being one year later. We discuss implications for the nature and structure of security-providing worldviews. Despite the benefits of humility, holding existential beliefs humbly might come with intrapsychic costs.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Other measures in Study 1 included trust in God, meaning in life, religious and spiritual struggles, hope, need for cognition, and indices of psychological flexibility.

² As with Study 1, other measures in Study 2 included trust in God, meaning in life, religious and spiritual struggles, hope, need for cognition, intellectual humility, and indices of psychological flexibility.

³ As with Studies 1 and 2, we included other measures to assess other variables, not reported here. Other measures included personality (i.e., Big Five), meaning in life, measures of religious orientation, religious and spiritual struggle, religious ostracism, reactions to COVID-19, and trust in God.

⁴ The larger project included quantitative and qualitative questions related to constructs such as religious beliefs and practices, religious change, views of God and religious communities, religious and spiritual struggles, trust in God, attachment to God, moral values, religious orientation, religious commitment, forgiveness, and humility.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants #61392 and #61106 from The John Templeton Foundation. Funders played no role in the design, analysis, or interpretation of any aspect of this study