Dr. Rick H. Hoyle
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Title: Intellectual Humility and the Management of Personal Knowledge and Beliefs in an Uncertain and Polarized World
Abstract: Differing assumptions, experiences, and motives contribute to multiple perspectives on and conclusions about what is right and true. The result is alternative views concerning nearly all topics and issues and the potential for animosity and conflict when people are exposed to views that differ from their own views. That potential is substantially reduced for people who accept that their views could be wrong or ill-informed and might benefit from thoughtful consideration of new information. More generally they recognize and accept the possibility that their views may be less defensible than views promoted by other people and information sources. And, even if they remain convinced that a current view does not warrant revision or change, they do not view challenges to it as a personal affront. That is to say, they react to alternative views with intellectual humility. In this talk, I provide an overview of a program of research focused on the conceptualization and measurement of intellectual humility with an emphasis on psychological mechanisms that may serve as targets of interventions that aim to promote intellectual humility. I hope to stimulate discussion of the intellectual humility construct understood both as an individual difference and as a framework for productive conversation about divisive issues.
Rick is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Director of the Center for the Study of Adolescent Risk and Resilience at Duke University. Before moving to Duke, he was a faculty member at the University of Kentucky, moving from assistant to associate to full professor and department chair. He completed doctoral studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in social and quantitative psychology. He has wide-ranging research interests that include topics in the areas of measurement, self-regulation, health behavior, and their intersections. The topic of today’s talk reflects a general interest in indicators of adjustment and well-being, with a particular emphasis on characteristics that reflect a healthy understanding of self in relation to others. He has served as editor of Self and Identity and Journal of Social Issues and associate editor for Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Journal of Personality. He will begin a term as associate editor for American Psychologist in 2024.
