Be humble

The organizational psychologist and author Adam Grant posted this past weekend about a new article published in the journal Nature Behavioral Health that I thought was really interesting (see the article "The effect of seeing scientists as intellectually humble on trust in scientists and their research").  The investigators (Jonah Koetke, Karina Schumann, Shauna Bowes, and Nina Vaupotic) examined the relationship between trust, principally in scientific research, and humility.  One can easily deduce their motivation for doing so, given all of the mistrust around scientific research and public health that exists today.  For example, in a recent post ("If only out of curiosity..."), I provided data from several Gallup surveys that shows trust is declining in a number of our institutions and organizations, including the federal government, the health care system, and even organized religion.  The public's trust in scientists took a major hit during and shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic, and while trust has improved slightly, it is still nowhere near pre-pandemic levels.

Koetke, Schumann, Bowes, and Vaupotic defined "perceived trustworthiness" as having the qualities of expertise (seeing the scientist as competent), benevolence (seeing the scientist as concerned for the wellbeing of the public), and integrity (seeing the scientist as honest).  They defined "intellectual humility" as the intrapersonal awareness of the limitations of one's own knowledge and that he/she could be wrong.  The investigators conducted five studies involving over 2,300 participants.  They found that seeing or describing a scientist as higher in "intellectual humility" increased their perceived trustworthiness, and most importantly (perhaps), increased the participants' intentions to follow the scientists' research-based recommendations and/or seek further information.  

Grant summarizes the research findings by stating simply, "Scientists are more credible when they admit what they don't know, acknowledge what they got wrong, and update their views."  He went on to generalize these findings by stating, "What leads us to ignore experts isn't their knowledge.  It's their arrogance...Trust is earned by expressing humility, not by asserting authority."

The Hollywood actor Dick Van Dyke perhaps said it best, "Just knowing you don't have the answers is a recipe for humility, openness, acceptance, forgiveness, and an eagerness to learn - and those are all good things."  What he didn't say, is that just knowing you don't have all the answers may be the key to trust.