Franka Grefer

  Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience | Bachelor Psychology

Exploring Intellectual Humility via Judgments of "Not Knowing" and their Effect on Humble Inquiry

Franka's elevator pitch
My thesis investigates the relationship between intellectual humility, judgments of "not knowing," and their potential to foster humble inquiry - a form of critical, evidence-based information processing. By using four different philosophical thought experiments, the study explores whether prompting individuals to acknowledge that they “don’t know” their willingness to read counter-attitudinal information increases-- a hallmark of humble inquiry. Results reveal that overall those participants making “don’t know” judgments, thus embracing uncertainty, are significantly more likely to be humble in their inquiry. This finding shows that intellectual humility can counteract biased reasoning, fostering more informed and less polarized discourses.