😤 Do you sometimes find it hard to admit you're wrong?
It's a sign you need to practice your intellectual humility.
Having a firm standpoint on a topic is a great thing. It means you know your values and choose to operate within those values. Whether intentional or not, sometimes we even tend to surround ourselves with people who believe in the similar values we have.
This is done under the disguise of ‘support’ and ‘comfort’. But as we all know, comfort could oftentimes become the enemy of growth.
The virtue you need to look into
As we live through various experiences, and meet different people from all walks of life, we start to gather information and create opinions of our own. We then start learning to differentiate right from wrong, creating our own list of values that will guide us through life. Individually, people might believe in different sets of values, but generally, there are common virtues that are deemed to be honorable such as open-mindedness, courage, integrity, and today’s star: humility.
Being humble with what you have does not limit to material possessions, it also includes your intellectual property. Recognizing that you might not have all the right information all the time, shows a sense of growth and curiosity. Willingness to appreciate other people’s points even when they contradict yours is one of the vocal points of intellectual humility.
Watch the full animated explanation of intellectual humility here.
What makes a person humble intellectually?
According to research from Pepperdine University, New York University, the John Templeton Foundation, and researcher Shane Snow, intellectual humility is made up of 4 main elements:
 1. Respect for others’ viewpoints: Your ability to not jump into the conclusion that another perspective is wrong, solely based on the fact that it is different from yours.
2. Lack of intellectual overconfidence: Your ability to not be taken over by your own knowledge or expertise.
3. Separation of ego from intellect: Your ability to not feel personally attacked when other people disagree with your beliefs.
4. Willingness to revise viewpoints: Your ability and courage to change opinions when presented with new information.
Take the test to see which element is your strongest, and which ones you need to work on here.
Learning the challenges to improve better
Just like most virtues, intellectual humility is not something most people were born with. It takes practice and getting used to. Here are some ways we can better improve our intellectual humility:
To have greater intellectual humility, we first need to reevaluate our cognitive blind spots, which we also talked about on our first ever Monday Mavens edition.
One of the hardest parts of acquiring intellectual humility is to let go of the fear of being ‘wrong’, and celebrate those who admit to their shortcomings.
As humans, we can never be perfect with any virtues we try to possess. There will be times when our opinions and beliefs are challenged, and the intellectual humility we have just gets thrown out of the window. Be kind to yourself, and trust that it’s a part of the journey.
Catch up with our past Monday Mavens editions here, and we’ll see you again next week!