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Humility: An Emerging Construct in Moral Psychology

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Abstract

The virtue of humility is lauded by most authorities but opinions of what it is, what it includes and what it does not are multifarious. Religious and philosophical traditions in India stress its role in emancipating the ego and providing an understanding for one’s perspective as contrasted against the magnanimity of the Almighty, the Supernatural or the Universe. Most academicians within the scientific psychological realm also look upon humility as a virtue. Accredited as a powerful tool for personal, social and organisational well-being, humility, as a moral construct, deserves a thorough and detailed exploration to reveal what it entails, what its corollaries are and how it can be measured. It is particularly useful in Indian context, as indigenous traditions have always emphasised humility. However, such efforts have remained relatively neglected till recent years. Of course, a few researchers with emphasis on moral and positive psychology have probed and prodded this concept to lay bare its comprising elements and to build tools to measure it. These attempts have been discussed here. Information was culled from surveying the scientific literature of the past four decades from psychological and philosophical journals and handbooks. Its overlap with Indian concept of humility has been discussed, and the unresolved questions about its nuances are put forward for future research endeavour.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by University Grants Commission (Grant No. UGC UPE-II Cognitive Science Program).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Cognitive Science, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 700032, India

    Oindrila Bhattacharya & Amita Chatterjee

  2. Department of Applied Psychology, University of Calcutta, 92 APC Road, Kolkata, 700009, India

    Jayanti Basu

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  1. Oindrila Bhattacharya
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  2. Amita Chatterjee
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Correspondence to Oindrila Bhattacharya.

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Bhattacharya, O., Chatterjee, A. & Basu, J. Humility: An Emerging Construct in Moral Psychology. Psychol Stud 62, 1–11 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-017-0387-9

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