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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1401182
This article is part of the Research Topic Humility, Well-Being, and Civic Virtue in Pluralistic Democracies View all 3 articles

Are There Potential Costs for Humility in a Pluralistic Democracy?: A Longitudinal Investigation of Immigrants in the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study

Provisionally accepted
Aaron T. McLaughlin Aaron T. McLaughlin 1*Don E. Davis Don E. Davis 1Yejin Lee Yejin Lee 1Hee C. Woo Hee C. Woo 1Jamian Coleman Jamian Coleman 2Joseph A. Bulbulia Joseph A. Bulbulia 3Danny Osborne Danny Osborne 4Chris G. Sibley Chris G. Sibley 4
  • 1 Georgia State University, Atlanta, United States
  • 2 The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
  • 3 Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
  • 4 The University of Auckland, Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In this longitudinal study, we examine the potential costs and benefits of humility for well-being and civic trust among immigrants in a pluralistic democracy. With data from 14,864 immigrant participants from a nationwide random sample in New Zealand, we used multilevel modeling to examine the associations general humility (i.e., honesty-humility modesty) had with well-being (life satisfaction and meaning) and civic trust (trust in police) over time in contexts with varying levels of ethnic deprivation and perceived religious discrimination. We hypothesized that (a) humility would correlate positively with well-being and civic trust (Hypothesis 1), (b) these associations would be attenuated in the contexts where perceptions of ethnic deprivation and religious discrimination are high (Hypothesis 2), and (c) these interaction effects would become more pronounced when cultural identities are salient (Hypothesis 3). Multilevel modelling revealed partial support for these hypotheses. Although humility correlated positively with well being and trust in police over time, the two-way and three-way interactions did not yield substantial support for Hypotheses 2 and 3, respectively. The context of religious discrimination did, however, marginally attenuate the positive association between humility and trust in police. Collectively, these results demonstrate that humility is associated with multiple benefits to well being and civic trust and has few—if any—potential drawbacks.

    Keywords: Humility, Moderation, Immigrants, Well-being, Civic trust

    Received: 14 Mar 2024; Accepted: 19 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 McLaughlin, Davis, Lee, Woo, Coleman, Bulbulia, Osborne and Sibley. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Aaron T. McLaughlin, Georgia State University, Atlanta, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.