Notes #3: The pursuit of humility and open-mindedness

To increase your open-mindedness, try taking the time to gaze in wonder at the stars

To increase your open-mindedness, try taking the time to gaze in wonder at the stars.

A final, more pleasurable step you can take to increase your intellectual humility comes in the form of deliberately invoking in oneself the emotion of awe. Several studies have shown that awe quietens the ego and prompts epistemological openness – that is, a greater willingness to look at things differently and to recognise the gaps in one’s knowledge. The emotion also seems to reduce people’s need to be satisfied by definite, closed arguments.

Another paper published the same year, and that used nature videos and a virtual-reality experience of the aurora borealis to induce awe, found that the emotion led volunteers to be more aware of the gaps in their knowledge, and to take a keener interest in science. Paraphrasing Albert Einstein, the researchers wrote that ‘one who never experiences awe ceases to discover’. The message is simple: to increase your open-mindedness, try taking the time to gaze in wonder at the stars.