“I Don’t Know”
The Power of Intellectual Humility
Welcome!
“Rather than swallowing our pride and simply asking what we do not know, we choose to fill in the blanks ourselves and later become humbled. Wisdom was often, in its youth, proven foolish, and ones humiliated were meant to become wise.”
~ Criss Jami ~
We are the descendants of thousands of generations of people who guarded their reputations to remain within the safety of a tribe. As each generation aged, their fertility and strength waned but their knowledge and experience still made them valuable to the tribe.
It should be of no surprise that people today are reluctant to admit they don’t have an informed opinion.
Using another analogy, Haidt suggests that human minds are more comparable to lawyers and public relations consultants than they are to scientists who “objectively” seek the truth, whatever the implications of the conclusion. Our minds are well-adapted to providing post hoc justifications or explanations for the moral convictions, “intuitions” that we already possess. …
The bottom line is we are emotional actors who act (or respond) first from intuition, and only after the fact of our response do we work overtime to procure rational justification.
When our mind doesn’t have an immediate answer to a question, the subconscious is prone to take over and respond with an intuition, an intuitive response. If challenged, the brain then manufactures a rational, rather than admitting having given a “half-assed” answer. This is our ancient programming attempting to preserve our reputation.
This genetic adaptation is losing its usefulness in our modern, data-driven world. Facts are more readily checked. If we state something of consequence that is incorrect, then our reputation is harmed. We may not be thrown out of a tribe, but we might not get that next promotion or that glowing recommendation.
Stating “I don’t know” or “I haven’t formed an opinion on that” feels like a mistake to say, but it’s a relatively rare admission that actually raises other’s perceptions of your integrity and honesty. Being willing to admit ignorance on a subject has the added benefit of not getting caught in a misstatement.
Only 4% of the respondents indicated they were right less than half of the time, and only 14% said they were right half of the time. The vast majority—a whopping 82%—reported that, when they disagreed with other people, they were usually the one who was right!
Another benefit to being willing to admit ignorance is, ironically, an increased likelihood of being correct. It’s because intellectual humility causes the individual to look for the correct answer instead of assuming they already have it.
In another study in which participants read sentences about controversial topics, intellectually humble participants spent more time reading sentences that expressed viewpoints counter to their own opinions than participants low in intellectual humility, suggesting that they were thinking more deeply about ideas with which they disagreed. (Low and high intellectual humility participants didn’t differ in the time they spent reading sentences consistent with their attitudes.) Along the same lines, a study by Tenelle Porter and Karina Schumann found that people higher in intellectual humility were more interested in understanding the reasons that people disagree with them.
Early on in my consulting career I learned the power of “I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you.” It invariably led to the clients trusting me more which led to higher adherence to my recommendation. If a problem arose at a client’s, they were less likely to blame their consultant.
Intellectual humility also turns out to be a very powerful tool for organizational leaders:
Effective leaders are able to set a vision and direction, get others to buy into this vision and mobilize them to produce the change required to achieve this vision. None of this requires having all the answers. Yet, many people’s idea of a leader involves someone who has foresight and insight - someone who is able to see what others don’t. This can often translate to never saying “I don’t know.”…
Knowledge is important. But overestimating the importance of having all the answers (or the belief that you already possess them) can quiet your curiosity to explore all the facets of a topic with a fresh, learning focused mindset.
And…
Recognizing one’s ignorance and intellectual fallibility are core features of intellectual humility. Intellectually humbler people seem to be more curious and better liked as leaders, and tend to make more thorough, well informed decisions. Intellectually humbler people also seem to be more open to cooperating with those whose views differ from their own. These habits of mind could be vital for confronting many of the challenges facing societies today, and beneficial to laypeople, policy makers and scientists (Box 1).
It takes practice to stop the reflexive reaction of providing a poorly informed answer. It’s important to adopt the moral value that admitting not having all the answers is a greater virtue than pretending otherwise, and remembering to pause before answering a question to give the cognitive brain a chance to process what was asked.
“Among the many things that made the Professor an excellent teacher was the fact that he wasn't afraid to say 'we don't know.' For the Professor, there was no shame in admitting you didn't have the answer, it was a necessary step toward the truth. It was as important to teach us about the unknown or the unknowable as it was to teach us what had already been safely proven.”
~ Yoko Ogawa ~
Finale
Adapting a policy of intellectual humility is one of the greatest “hacks” I can give anyone for their professional and personal advancement. It’s a reputation builder as well as a tool for improving your leadership and understanding. Give yourself permission to not be “all knowing” — because none of us are.
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Your friend,
DJ