Lay Preferences for and Perceptions of Intellectual Humility Across Societal Roles

Research on intellectual humility (IH)—the awareness of one's intellectual limitations—demonstrates that high levels of self-reported IH are associated with behaviors that are broadly beneficial for individuals and society. Here, we examined people's preferences for, and perceptions of, IH in others. In a repeated-measures experiment, we asked participants to report their ideal level of IH and their perceived level of IH for nine different societal roles with expertise or influence (e.g., teachers, doctors, politicians). We found that people believe targets in all roles should have high levels of IH, but they also see those in all roles as falling short of these ideal levels. Furthermore, we found that perceived levels of IH, as well as the discrepancy between ideal and perceived IH, significantly predict important perceptions (warmth, morality, competence) and global attitudes toward people in these roles. This work reveals that IH is a meaningful aspect of person perception.