Psychological Assessment of Humility and Intellectual Humility (IH): A Review of the Literature

The empirical study of dispositional humility as a facet of personality and of intellectual humility as an intellectual virtue has increased dramatically in just the last decade. This paper reviews the conceptualization of these constructs as well as the many assessment strategies designed to measure them. With particular focus on the practice of science and the collaborative work of labs, I conclude with the suggestion that the individualism of traditional virtue concepts elides the important role of social and communal forces in securing rationally-grounded knowledge. This would shift attention away from the virtuous character of the lone scientist to the virtuous practice of the lab group or collaborative work team that requires the collective and social display of intellectual humility as a communal norm, functioning as a regulative ideal. This calls for another type of assessment that assesses the social-relational dynamics of intellectual virtue within networks of collaborators in addition to assessment of intellectual virtue as a personal characteristic.