“I don’t know” – it takes courage to utter that little sentence.
But, surprisingly, this “intellectual modesty” goes hand in hand with greater general knowledge. This is what researchers at Pepperdine University in California have discovered. Five studies have shown, among other things, that intellectually modest people do not score lower on cognitive skills (vocabulary, calculation, reasoning, and spatial abilities) than their more arrogant peers, but that they underestimate their own abilities. Another finding: modest people enjoy amassing knowledge and are motivated to study new things. Probably because they are aware they have knowledge to acquire.