Research Agrees With Jeff Bezos That This Is the Most Important Quality for Success

In the course of this deep dive into the subject, Leary outlines a heap of research on the benefits of intellectual humility. "One of our studies showed that people high in intellectual humility were more attentive to the quality of the evidence in an article about the value of dental flossing, more clearly distinguishing good from bad reasons to floss," he writes.

Other studies show the intellectually humble give more careful consideration to evidence that contradicts their views and end up with a better understanding of those they disagree with (which can't hurt when it comes to empathy, persuasion, and negotiating compromises ). They're also better at eliciting creative and varied ideas from others.

"Intellectual humility is also associated with the desire to learn new information. People who are high in intellectual humility score higher in epistemic curiosity , which is the motivation to pursue new knowledge and ideas," Leary adds. "People higher in intellectual humility like to think more than people low in intellectual humility do."

On the flip side, those low in intellectual humility are more likely to get emotional with those who disagree with them and are rated as likable by others. They are less likely to compromise and even less likely to end up in satisfying relationships.

Intellectual humility might not be the most discussed trait, but research shows it's an essential precursor to almost any kind of excellence.

So how can we temper our natural human tendency toward overconfidence and nudge ourselves to be a little more humble about the limits of our knowledge? Leary uses logic to try to talk people around to a little more humility.

"People must see that approaching the world in a more intellectually humble fashion is both rational and beneficial," he writes. "Intellectual humility is rational in the sense that we can't all be right in most of our disagreements, we are often irrationally overconfident, and the evidence on which our beliefs and viewpoints are based is often rather flimsy.”

Intellectual humility therefore makes sense and is beneficial. And of course, Intellectual pride doesn't make sense and is detrimental. If we are rational beings, we should naturally pursue what’s beneficial. So, why would rational people be as sure of themselves as most of us are?

It's a pretty compelling argument for taking a long, hard look at whether you're as open to new information and ideas as you should be. And if it helps you can also remind yourself that this quality will certainly help you get a job with Jeff Bezos too.