Intellectual Limitations and Doctor’s Orders: Examining the Relationship between Intellectual Humility and Adherence to Medical Advice

Nonadherence to medical advice poses a threat to patients, providers, and the health care system. Intellectual humility reflects one’s ability to recognize their intellectual limitations through the components of independence of intellectand ego, openness to revising one’s viewpoint, respect for other’s viewpoints, and lack of intellectual overconfidence. Possessing more intellectual humility may help improve the way people interact with medical information, thereby increasing their understanding of medical conditions and necessary treatment. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between intellectual humility and adherence by having participants (N = 196) complete the Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale and the General Medication Adherence Scale. We found that overall intellectual humility and components of independence of intellect and ego and lack of overconfidence were positively related to overall adherence and its components (behavior, burden, and cost). These findings have the potential to improve adherence and the understanding of intellectual humility in the medical context

Examining the Association between Awareness and Acceptance of Impermanence and Humility

People who appreciate their smallness compared to the vastness of the world can detach themselves from their egos and become humble. We argue that humility is not only about the relative size of the ego, but also about the relativetime in which the ego exists. The current study examined the relationship between awareness and acceptance of the fleeting nature of time (impermanence) and humility. We collected data from 257 adults residing in the United Statesthrough an online study. Participants completed a measure of impermanence and measures of humility. Bivariate correlations suggested that there were significant positive correlations between acceptance and awareness of impermanence and humility. The results suggested people who were more aware and accepting of impermanence had higher reports of being humble, suggesting another strategy to increase humility