Who am I to judge? Intellectual Humility and Dispositional Attributions

Abstract

According to the attribution-value model, a great deal of stigmatization and prejudice stem from the belief that an individual’s character is to blame for their “negative” traits or qualities. Such dispositional attributions are also known to predict less forgiveness after a transgression. While investigations into the antecedents of such dispositional attributions have been numerous, a positive psychology approach has been underutilized, especially in the case of intellectual humility. In three investigations, I examine the hypothesis that those high in intellectual humility will be more likely to make complex attributions about the reason behind an individual’s behavior or appearance, leading to lower levels of dispositional blame. This model is examined in the context of one’s attitudes toward a hypothetical roommate showing signs of alcohol use disorder, obesity prejudice, and forgiveness after a hypothetical transgression. Internal motivation to control prejudice and perspective taking serve as additional mediators in the context of obesity prejudice and forgiveness, respectively. Results from these investigations show that intellectual humility displays significant indirect effects on these outcomes through lower blame, internal motivation to respond without prejudice and attributional judgments. Implications of these findings are discussed.