Intellectual humility is usually taken to be a virtue, but recent research by Matteo Colombo, Kevin Strangmann, Lieke Houkes, Zhasmina Kostadinova & Mark J. Brandt reports that Intellectual humility may also have a relationship with prejudice. They state:
- First, people are systematically prejudiced towards members of groups perceived as dissimilar.
- Second, intellectual humility weakens the association between perceived dissimilarity and prejudice.
- Third, more intellectual humility is associated with more prejudice overall.
“That is, the higher a participant score on the measures of intellectual humility, the more prejudice they express on average across all of the groups…” They also tie this to justification and good evidence
The basic idea is that those high in IH will tolerate a plurality of views and values and would not be prejudiced against those views and values. However, when the groups who hold these views and values are perceived to be low in IH, this will elicit a higher overall prejudicial response in those high in IH…. our findings might be driven not by the views associated with target social groups, but by the perceived epistemic attitudes associated with them.
I guess when I think about it, the results do make sense. Intellectually humble people are quite possibly likely to be dogmatists and go with the crowd or with authority of their crowd, and think a few confirming cases of their dogma prove universality.
For example. Let us suppose my crowd believes “Theory Q”. A skeptic might wonder about the truth/accuracy of theory Q, because that is their general position – they ‘arrogantly’ assume that some other people, can be wrong. However, a humble person like myself is likely to say, “I don’t understand Theory Q, it seems contradictory, and not in keeping with my experience, but all these people I admire go along with it. Is it more likely that they are wrong, or that I am lacking in understanding?” Being aware of my own intellectual limits I must assume they are more likely to be correct and I am deficient in some way.
Accepting Theory Q, may have the secondary reinforcement that it also makes life pleasant. Most other people I know, can accept me, as I go along with their dogma and assertions. It adds to my peace. So intellectually humble persons ‘logically’ support Theory Q dogma, no matter what misery it brings to themselves or others, and do not get carried away with the conceit of skepticism.
If the people I dislike, because they are in a socially disapproved outgroup, also happen to deny Theory Q, then their obvious lack of virtue, the arrogance with which they dismiss Theory Q, etc, leads me to be glad I am with people who believe theory Q. Its part of who we are. If I disagreed with theory Q then I must be like one of the despised outgroup and that cannot be. I would loose my support and meaning in life. I may not recognise that the outgroup is not being arrogant in its dislike of Theory Q, they may even object to it mildly, but how could I see that, when it is a mystery to me?
Of course if I were already to believe Theory Q, then I can stick with it, whatever the evidence, because again people I admire and trust go along with the dogma as well. Perhaps people they have been taught to dislike do not like theory Q. In either case, this dogmatism supports the rest of the group in its dogmatism. People cheerfully bring in evidence for the position and ignore counter evidence together, and chuckle at the idiots in the outgroup who are skeptical.
If people I admire etc, tell me that all people who are Z are also Y, then why not believe them? Especially if people who are Z seem visibly in the outgroup. What would I know? If I find that a person who is Z is rude to me, or hostile to me, it confirms that the dogma is correct, even if I have encountered people who are Z and I did not know it (they are perhaps hiding because of the general assertion they are Y) or they were quite pleasant even with my prejudice against them on display.
If some of this ‘reasoning’ is correct then intellectually humble people, or people who recognise the world is terribly complicated, can perhaps easily become dogmatic and non skeptical of their socially directed biases. They might even congratulate themselves on their intellectual humility, as it leads them to believe things they would not ordinarily believe and lets them be ‘saved’ or remain part of their identity group.
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