Humility reduces anger and promotes more benign interpretations of conflict

Research published in Personality and Individual Differences suggests that humility—both as a trait and as an experimentally induced state—was associated with lower levels of anger and reduced hostile attributions in ambiguous social situations.

Anger can be a destructive and difficult-to-regulate emotion, often linked to interpersonal and societal conflicts. Existing research suggests that humility—a psychological construct characterized by openness, accurate self-assessment, low self-focus, and appreciation of others—might serve as a protective factor against anger and aggression. Eddie Harmon-Jones and colleagues conducted this study to explore these associations further.

The research consisted of three studies designed to examine the relationship between humility and anger. Studies 1 (n = 166) and 2 (n = 112) employed a correlational approach to assess whether trait humility, as measured by various scales, was associated with reduced anger-related responses. In these studies, participants completed multiple questionnaires, including the Brief State Humility Scale, HEXACO Honesty-Humility subscale, and an intellectual humility scale.

To measure anger and aggression, researchers utilized the Aggression Questionnaire, which evaluates anger, verbal aggression, and hostility, and the Social Information Processing-Attribution Bias Questionnaire, which gauges participants’ attributions and emotional responses to ambiguous, potentially provocative scenarios. These scenarios allowed researchers to assess whether participants made hostile, benign, or instrumental attributions about others’ intentions.

Study 3 employed an experimental design to manipulate humility and measure its effects on anger-related responses. A total of 96 participants were randomly assigned to either a humility induction condition or a comparison condition. The humility condition involved a structured, 5-day program that included writing tasks, videos, and exercises designed to evoke humility. For example, participants reflected on moments of gratitude, acknowledged external contributions to their achievements, and wrote letters about times they acted altruistically.

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In contrast, the comparison condition included tasks focusing on neutral or pride-inducing themes, such as reflecting on personal strengths and achievements. Measures of anger and humility were taken before and after the intervention, allowing researchers to test whether the manipulation effectively reduced anger-related responses. The study design ensured consistency across groups by controlling for task length and attentional engagement.

Studies 1 and 2 revealed that trait humility was strongly associated with lower levels of anger and aggression. Individuals who scored higher on humility measures reported less anger, reduced hostile attributions, and greater tendencies to make benign attributions when interpreting ambiguous, potentially antagonistic situations. Furthermore, humility was negatively associated with physical aggression, verbal aggression, and hostility as measured by the Aggression Questionnaire.

These effects persisted even after accounting for narcissism, a trait often considered the opposite of humility, suggesting that humility exerts unique and significant influence over anger regulation. The results also demonstrated that intellectually humble individuals were more open to understanding differing perspectives, which may help explain their reduced anger and hostility.

In Study 3, the experimental manipulation of humility demonstrated causal evidence that humility can reduce anger. Participants in the humility induction group reported significantly lower anger by the end of the five-day intervention, as measured by both self-reported emotional responses and the anger subscale of the Aggression Questionnaire.

However, while the humility manipulation reduced participants; emotional experiences of anger, it had less impact on their hostile attributions or behavioral aggression. These findings suggest that humility primarily influences the emotional aspects of anger rather than the cognitive or behavioral components. In comparison, participants in the control group, who completed tasks unrelated to humility, showed no meaningful change in their anger-related measures over the same period.

Overall, the results support the hypothesis that humility can serve as a protective factor against anger, with both trait humility and experimentally induced humility contributing to reduced emotional reactivity in anger-provoking situations.

While these studies demonstrated that humility reduced anger, it might not generalize to all aspects of anger-related behaviors or across diverse populations.

The research, “Humility and anger,” was authored by  Eddie Harmon-Jones, Mikey Xu, Kinga Szymaniak, Thomas F. Denson, Brandon J. Schmeichel, and Cindy Harmon-Jones.