Intellectual humility: the importance of knowing you might be wrong - Vox, Jan 2019

[Sly Saint]

For the past few months, I’ve been talking to many scholars about intellectual humility, the characteristic that allows for admission of wrongness.

Intellectual humility is simply “the recognition that the things you believe in might in fact be wrong,” as Mark Leary, a social and personality psychologist at Duke University, tells me.

But don’t confuse it with overall humility or bashfulness. It’s not about being a pushover; it’s not about lacking confidence, or self-esteem. The intellectually humble don’t cave every time their thoughts are challenged.

Instead, it’s a method of thinking. It’s about entertaining the possibility that you may be wrong and being open to learning from the experience of others. Intellectual humility is about being actively curious about your blind spots. One illustration is in the ideal of the scientific method, where a scientist actively works against her own hypothesis, attempting to rule out any other alternative explanations for a phenomenon before settling on a conclusion. It’s about asking: What am I missing here?

The field of psychology, overall, has been reckoning with a “replication crisis” where many classic findings in the science don’t hold up under rigorous scrutiny. Incredibly influential textbook findings in psychology — like the “ego depletion” theory of willpower or the “marshmallow test” — have been bending or breaking.

I’ve found it fascinating to watch the field of psychology deal with this. For some researchers, the reckoning has been personally unsettling. “I’m in a dark place,” Michael Inzlicht, a University of Toronto psychologist, wrote in a 2016 blog post after seeing the theory of ego depletion crumble before his eyes.

What I’ve learned from reporting on the “replication crisis” is that intellectual humility requires support from peers and institutions. And that environment is hard to build.

“What we teach undergrads is that scientists want to prove themselves wrong,” says Simine Vazire, a psychologist and journal editor who often writes and speaks about replication issues. “But, ‘How would I know if I was wrong?’ is actually a really, really hard question to answer. It involves things like having critics yell at you and telling you that you did things wrong and reanalyze your data.”

And that’s not fun. Again: Even among scientists — people who ought to question everything — intellectual humility is hard. In some cases, researchers have refused to concede their original conclusions despite the unveiling of new evidence. (One famous psychologist under fire recently told me angrily, “I will stand by that conclusion for the rest of my life, no matter what anyone says.”)

There are two solutions — among many — to make psychological science more humble, and I think we can learn from them.
One is that humility needs to be built into the standard practices of the science. And that happens through transparency. It’s becoming more commonplace for scientists to preregister — i.e., commit to — a study design before even embarking on an experiment. That way, it’s harder for them to deviate from the plan and cherry-pick results. It also makes sure all data is open and accessible to anyone who wants to conduct a reanalysis.

full article here
https://www.vox.com/science-and-hea...ual-humility-explained-psychology-replication

eta:

 

[Andy]

I saw the thread title and wondered if it was something that Sharpe had tweeted, in yet another effort by him to break the irony meter.

 

[Midnattsol]

I do hope this idea is implemented, and not just in psych research. Another thing is creating an environment where admitting to being wrong is not met with some sort of humiliation/harassment/some other conseqeunce people will do alot to avoid. Rather it's an opportunity to better understand a subject.

With that said, people who repeatedly make mistakes and don't learn from them might not be the best people to do research.

 

[Barry]

I saw the thread title and wondered if it was something that Sharpe had tweeted, in yet another effort by him to break the irony meter.

Ha! , Yes ... MS genuinely acknowledging the virtues of intellectual humility, would be the ultimate inconceivability. Yet pretending to acknowledge it, highly believable.

 

[Sean]

Coz the most humble people always make sure everybody knows they are.

 

[James Morris-Lent]

Coz the most humble people always make sure everybody knows they are.

About
"I, Too, Am Extraordinarily Humble" is a memorable quote uttered by the character Drax in the film 2017 Marvel superhero science fiction action film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Online, people use the quote and screen captures of Drax saying the line to make jokes about a lack of modesty.

Origin
On May 5th, 2017, the film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was released in the United States.[1] In the film, the character Drax (portrayed by Dave Bautista), who is defined by a lack of self-awareness and an inability to understand metaphors, sarcasm or other figures of speech, says, "Humility, I like it. I, too, am extraordinarily humble"

(https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-too-am-extraordinarily-humble)

 

[Forbin]

I remember watching a documentary about the Vietnam War in which a high ranking member of the US government, a senator, congressman, or possibly even Vice President Hubert Humphrey, said that they changed their position on the war during a heated conversation with someone who was opposed to it. The person opposed simply asked "How do you know you're not wrong?" and the person who supported the war didn't have an answer.

[I wish I could remember who this was. I know it was someone pretty famous.]

 

[alktipping]

well they could start by admitting they are not scientist and everything they do is based on pseudo intellectual sophistry .

 

[Snowdrop]

well they could start by admitting they are not scientist and everything they do is based on pseudo intellectual sophistry .

Also I think based on a dislike and mistrust of people who are not as special as they are.

If they were sick with whatever we have none of this BPS stuff would exist.