Relating information seeking and use to intellectual humility

Tim Gorichanaz

Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, 2022, vol. 73, issue 5, 643-654

Abstract: Virtue epistemology offers a yet‐untapped path for ethical development in information science. This paper presents two empirical studies on intellectual humility (IH), a cornerstone intellectual virtue. Centrally, IH is a matter of being open to the possibility that one may be misinformed or uninformed; it involves accurately valuing one's beliefs according to the evidence. The studies presented in this paper explore the relationship between IH and people's information seeking and use. First, a correlational questionnaire study was conducted with 201 participants considering a recent, real‐life task; second, a concurrent thinkaloud study was conducted with 8 participants completing 3 online search tasks. These studies give further color to prior assertions that people with higher IH engage in more information seeking. The results show, for instance, that those with higher IH may actually favor more easily accessible information sources and that some dimensions of IH, such as modesty and engagement, may be most important to information seeking. These findings offer a nuanced understanding of the relationship between IH and information behavior and practices. They suggest avenues for further research, and they may be applied in educational contexts and sociotechnical design.

Date: 2022
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