Intellectual Humility Helps Adolescents Thrive

Adolescence is a time of explosive change, not just in terms of hormonal storms and suddenly outgrowing clothes, but also of intellectual and development: teenagers are expected to form opinions, forge their own identities, challenge authority and begin participating in civic life – all this while navigating social pressure, and particularly the terror of embarrassment. So it may sound surprising to assert that adolescents are able to learn intellectual humility, i.e. the ability to recognize that one’s knowledge is incomplete and one’s beliefs may be wrong. Yet, this is what we say in our theoretical research.

Developing intellectual humility will help adolescents learn better, build stronger relationships and engage more constructively with people who disagree with them. Schools could play a particularly important role in developing this mental asset, which is particularly valuable in our times of heightened social and political polarization.  

What is intellectual humility, and what it is not

Humans are not omniscient. Without going so far as to say, like Socrates, that "all I know is that I know nothing," we should be aware that our knowledge is partial, and our judgment is clouded by a host of unconscious biases, meaning our beliefs may be wrong.  

Acknowledging these boundaries requires intellectual humility. 

The concept is not to be confused with curiosity (a person can be willing to learn without recognizing their current limits) or with simple open-mindedness, which is about considering different views. Neither does it mean believing nothing, or doubting everything. It simply means accepting the idea that you may be wrong, or do not know.

Drawing on previous literature, we explain that intellectual humility is an attribute that characterizes excellent thinkers and learners. People with higher levels of intellectual humility are more willing to hear out other people's perspectives, less likely to unthinkingly endorse conspiracy theories and more ready to vet dubious misinformation, and less likely to express hostility towards those who do not share their views.  

This is particularly precious in a context of social and political polarization. 

Intellectual humility is a desirable quality during the teenage years because it yields benefits during studies, in social interactions and, for the more politically minded, in citizenhood.  

As teenagers become less reliant on parents, they begin exploring political, social and moral questions for themselves, but this comes with what we call epistemic vulnerabilities. For instance, adolescents scrolling away on their smartphones will find themselves navigating huge amounts of information online, exposing themselves to misinformation and conspiracy beliefs. Intellectual humility, which reminds us to examine blind spots, can help detect these traps. 

The potential benefits extend into the classroom. The studies we quote in our paper show that higher intellectual humility among high-school and university students is associated with greater effort, persistence, receptiveness to teachers’ feedback and better grades.

The social benefits are just as important, considering the social challenges that come with teenage years: seeking to escape parental authority and grow strong friendships, not to mention surviving the highs and lows of budding romantic relationships. Intellectual humility can help young people manage conflict more constructively and is associated with greater empathic accuracy, closeness and relationship satisfaction.

Last but not least is the civic dimension. As young people encounter people with different political, cultural and religious beliefs (in pluralistic societies, that is), interactions appear more constructive with a degree of intellectual humility. For instance, intellectually humbler US college graduates were more interested in joining a bipartisan political group during the 2008 presidential election than their more immodest peers. Again, this is particularly welcome at times of increasing partisan hostility, including among youth. 

Teenagers are capable of intellectual humility, despite stereotypes

The common caricature of adolescence paints a picture of self-centered, cocky and careless beings – hardly traits conducive to intellectual meekness. But the evidence we lean on in our paper is more encouraging.  

Intellectual humility depends partly on metacognition, or the ability to reflect on one’s own thinking, and social cognition, the ability to understand other people. These capacities exist in children and tend to become more sophisticated over the years. A number of studies show that young people become increasingly able to assess their own knowledge, compare it with that of others, weigh conflicting information and consider the trustworthiness of sources.  

Adolescents also gradually craft a more nuanced understanding of themselves. Young children’s self-views tend to be broader and sometimes excessively positive, then become more complex and nuanced from late childhood to late adolescence. In spite of the stereotype of the self-aggrandizing teenager, average narcissism actually starts to decline from around age eight.

All this lays the groundwork for intellectual humility. 

How schools can foster intellectual humility, or not

Schools are an obvious training ground for intellectual humility, at least partly because that's where youngsters spend a large chunk of their waking hours. Schools are places where young people acquire knowledge, refine beliefs and receive the occasional unwelcome news that they are wrong.

The evidence we reviewed suggests that classroom culture matters.

Students were more willing to express intellectual humility when teachers modeled it themselves, several experiments showed. Middle-school students also became more intellectually humble when their teachers created strong learning cultures, i.e. environments where the main goal was to understand material deeply rather than to merely get the answers right.

Middle-school students became more intellectually humble when their teachers created environments where the main goal was to understand material deeply rather than to merely get the answers right.

Conversely, the opposite type of culture can teach an opposite lesson. In what could be called “brilliance cultures,” the competitive environments that value students who shine intellectually, humility can compromise chances for success, or at least for appearing successful. In a number of schools, children learn early on that knowing answers earns them gold stars, asking questions is not so rewarded. In that context, which student wants to admit ignorance or confusion?

What researchers could explore about all the benefits of intellectual humility

There is much to learn about developing intellectual humility in adolescence and how schools can encourage this. For instance, much of the research we reviewed was conducted in the US, leaving other contexts under-explored.

There are many other areas researchers could examine. Polarization is one. Teachers may avoid controversial topics because they fear conflict, yet this deprives students of opportunities to practice disagreeing respectfully. Also, do polarized school environments make students less intellectually humble or do young people embrace the trait as a reaction against the hostility around them?

There is also the challenge of science and social studies. How to embody intellectual humility without jeopardizing the credibility of good scientific and historical sources? Especially in times when “post-truth” rhetoric and denials of science use uncertainty as an argument to discredit expertise altogether, while deceptively giving themselves the appearance of intellectual humility.  

The Internet is another area, particularly as teenagers spend a staggering 4.8 hours a day on social media. Digital media algorithms are known to present users with content that matches, and reinforces, their own beliefs. Researchers need to examine whether skills such as evaluating online sources can strengthen intellectual humility, and whether intellectual humility, in turn, can lead to more compassionate and less hostile online behavior.

Finally, humility is likely not an equal blessing for everyone. Less socially advantaged students may already be more likely to underestimate their knowledge or have their expertise questioned unfairly. For them, expressing uncertainty could carry greater costs.

All the avenues above therefore need to be explored empirically.