Many people have a tendency to overestimate their cognitive abilities and resist altering their opinions when confronted with conflicting evidence or perspectives. Evolutionary psychology suggests that this bias is a result of the adaptive function of the human mind, which evolved to prioritize quick and decisive judgments over slow and uncertain ones [1]. However, in the modern world, where information is abundant and diverse, the bias can be counterproductive and harmful, leading to conflicts, misunderstandings, and polarization in various domains of life [2]. Intellectual humility, a metacognitive ability that recognize one’s intellectual limitations, may serve as a safeguard against bias and improve one’s cognitive performance [3].
Previous research has demonstrated that intellectual humility can have positive effects on various aspects at both the societal and individual levels [3]. At the societal level, it can enhance cohesion by reducing group polarization and fostering harmonious intergroup relations [3]. From the perspective of individual development and well-being, intellectually humble people are more likely to exhibit greater gratitude, altruism, empathy, and benevolence than their intellectually arrogant counterparts [4, 5]. They also tend to have higher levels of personality traits such as agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness to experience, and self-esteem, while exhibiting lower levels of dark traits such as narcissism and Machiavellianism [6–8]. Furthermore, intellectually humble people are inclined to engage in open-mindedness, intellectual curiosity, need for cognition, and reflective thinking, all of which are conducive to knowledge acquisition and understanding [2, 7]. Recent studies have also explored the impact of intellectual humility on test anxiety among college students, finding that intellectual humility can help alleviate test anxiety [9].
The assessment of intellectual humility has been facilitated by the development of a variety of instruments, including self-report scales and behavioral tasks. Self-report questionnaires are the most common method for assessing both trait and state intellectual humility. A trait-level questionnaire, designed to measure intellectual humility as a trait, can provide an efficient preliminary snapshot of an individual’s intellectual humility. It might probe the degree to which an individual “[accepts] that [their] beliefs and attitudes may be wrong” [3, 10]. However, these questionnaires may not sufficiently capture the fluctuations in intellectual humility in daily life or changes in response to interventions [3]. In contrast, state measures enable researchers to observe variations in individuals’ intellectual humility as they navigate different contexts and situations [11]. Therefore, integrating state and trait approaches can yield a more comprehensive understanding of intellectual humility.
The Limitations-Owning Intellectual Humility Scale(L-OIHS), which assesses both the state and trait aspects of intellectual humility, is one of the most comprehensive and nuanced self-report scales of intellectual humility [7]. The L-OIHS measures three dimensions of intellectual humility: love of learning, appropriate discomfort with intellectual limitations, and owning one’s intellectual limitations. The L-OIHS differs from other scales of intellectual humility in that it captures the balance between acknowledging one’s intellectual shortcomings and pursuing one’s intellectual growth. Specifically, the “love of learning” component of L-OIHS reflects an individual’s desire to acquire more knowledge and distinguishes those who are genuinely intellectually humble [7, 10, 12].
Considering the significant role of intellectual humility in individual and societal outcomes, it becomes crucial to explore the levels and correlates of intellectual humility among student populations. Schools, as contexts that emphasize intelligence and achievement, provide an ideal setting for such investigations [13, 14]. However, the majority of studies on intellectual humility have been conducted in Western countries with predominantly English-speaking samples. There is a noticeable lack of research on intellectual humility in non-Western cultures, such as China. Furthermore, there is no Chinese version of the L-OIHS available for assessing intellectual humility among Chinese-speaking students. To address this gap in the literature, this study primarily aims to develop and validate a Chinese adaptation of the L-OIHS, a comprehensive and nuanced measure of intellectual humility. The validation process will involve using closed-mindedness as a criterion variable.