Book chapter
99Too Much Intellectual Humility? Measuring Intellectual Servility in Civic Engagement During the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election
The Self, Civic Virtue, and Public Life, pp.99-112
Routledge
2024
DOI: 10.4324/9781003367857-7
Abstract
Intellectual humility (IH) is a virtue that might mitigate political polarization, hostility, and susceptibility to misinformation. This work assumes that the vice of arrogance, a deficiency of IH, drives these trends. We propose that to fully understand recent trends, we may also need to consider the vice of intellectual servility, which we conceptualize as an excess of the trait of IH. Social location may determine one's susceptibility to arrogance or servility depending on the privilege afforded to one's various social identities. IH might be needed to counter intellectual arrogance, whereas pride may be needed to help intellectually servile people move toward virtuous IH. We summarize the results of several studies showing that intellectual servility may have negative implications for democratic political engagement, including positive relationships with social dominance orientation and inverse relationships with openness, conscientiousness, and civic engagement. Intellectual servility may also impact individuals' well-being, as indicated by predicted curvilinear changes in flourishing over the course of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. Intellectual servility was related to lower flourishing prior to the election and slower rates of increase in flourishing following the election. Results of our studies indicate that IH measures do a better job of ruling out intellectual arrogance than intellectual servility, and the risk of servility should be considered when measuring IH and designing interventions to promote IH. We conclude by discussing measurement and intervention recommendations.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- 99Too Much Intellectual Humility? Measuring Intellectual Servility in Civic Engagement During the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election
- Creators
- Stacey E. McElroy-HeltzelHeather D. BattalyDon E. DavisJoshua N. Hook
- Contributors
- Nancy E. Snow (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- The Self, Civic Virtue, and Public Life, pp.99-112
- Publisher
- Routledge; New York, NY
- DOI
- 10.4324/9781003367857-7
- Alternative title
- Too Much Intellectual Humility?
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2024
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Quantitative Foundations
- Record Identifier
- 9984548467002771
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