Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Intellectual humility (IH) is the ability to understand the limits of one's knowledge. It is important to maximize the benefits and mitigate the threats of IH. We explored the impact of perspective taking (PT) on IH and its connection to confirmation bias (CB). In a mixed pretest-posttest experiment with 174 participants randomly assigned to self- or other-perspective, IH was higher in the other-perspective (vs self-perspective). Also, exposure to other-perspective boosted IH (vs baseline) and exposure to self-perspective inhibited IH (vs baseline). Interestingly, IH was not correlated with CB, challenging the notion that IH is a protective factor against CB. The study illustrates a clear distinction between other- and self-perspective and their impact on IH. Practicing other-perspective, allows to transcend from one's egocentric views, fostering IH. While self-perspective, reinforces egocentric views, leading to intellectual arrogance. Lastly, both intellectually humble and arrogant are susceptible to CB, emphasizing the need for more research.