About this Research Topic
Across the globe, recent years have seen population shifts and various crises including migration due to war or other unsafe living conditions, the global pandemic of COVID-19, and individuals increasingly de-identifying with religion in places like the United States (US). Alongside these events, signs of social unrest have manifested in terms of the events at the US capitol on January 6th, 2021, the Canadian trucker convoy, and Brexit. Existing scholarly work and public polling have indicated that these events adversely impact individuals’ well-being, undermine trust in public institutions, and are associated with political extremism. As a result, people may become disengaged from civic participation or may participate in ways that exacerbate rather than rectify these issues.
How do individuals thrive in pluralistic democracies that are diverse in terms of national origin, religious identification, race, ethnicity, and ideology? What virtues help individuals thrive in these contexts? For the purposes of this special section, we define thriving as a sense of individual well-being and civic participation that preserves or enhances democratic values. Thriving individuals have the personal and social resources they need to live a meaningful life and feel hopeful and motivated to make a positive impact on their community. Recent scholarly work has highlighted intellectual humility as a virtue that may help individuals cope with uncertainty, including cultural and ideological differences between themselves and important people in their lives or their broader community.
We seek to address questions including:
(1) To what extent is humility beneficial to well-being and civic engagement?
(2) Are there situations in which humility may be excessive or not beneficial to these outcomes?
(3) When and how does humility positively influence well-being and civic engagement?
We welcome studies that examine how humility in one or more of its various forms (general, relational, cultural, intellectual) is related to well-being and civic virtue in the face of intergroup conflict. Well-being can include both the absence of psychopathology (e.g., negative relationships between humility anxiety, stress, etc.) and the presence of indicators flourishing (e.g., meaning in life, life satisfaction). Civic virtue may include civic participation, endorsement, or promotion of democratic values. Papers appropriate for this special section should include a discussion of humility in the context of intergroup conflict or pluralistic democracy, and a discussion of the relationship with well-being, or civic virtue. Papers may be theoretical or empirical. We welcome and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration (e.g. psychology, philosophy, political science, education) so long as papers have a clear psychological focus or implications.
How do individuals thrive in pluralistic democracies that are diverse in terms of national origin, religious identification, race, ethnicity, and ideology? What virtues help individuals thrive in these contexts? For the purposes of this special section, we define thriving as a sense of individual well-being and civic participation that preserves or enhances democratic values. Thriving individuals have the personal and social resources they need to live a meaningful life and feel hopeful and motivated to make a positive impact on their community. Recent scholarly work has highlighted intellectual humility as a virtue that may help individuals cope with uncertainty, including cultural and ideological differences between themselves and important people in their lives or their broader community.
We seek to address questions including:
(1) To what extent is humility beneficial to well-being and civic engagement?
(2) Are there situations in which humility may be excessive or not beneficial to these outcomes?
(3) When and how does humility positively influence well-being and civic engagement?
We welcome studies that examine how humility in one or more of its various forms (general, relational, cultural, intellectual) is related to well-being and civic virtue in the face of intergroup conflict. Well-being can include both the absence of psychopathology (e.g., negative relationships between humility anxiety, stress, etc.) and the presence of indicators flourishing (e.g., meaning in life, life satisfaction). Civic virtue may include civic participation, endorsement, or promotion of democratic values. Papers appropriate for this special section should include a discussion of humility in the context of intergroup conflict or pluralistic democracy, and a discussion of the relationship with well-being, or civic virtue. Papers may be theoretical or empirical. We welcome and encourage interdisciplinary collaboration (e.g. psychology, philosophy, political science, education) so long as papers have a clear psychological focus or implications.
Keywords: Humility, well-being, civic virtue, democracy, intergroup conflict
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
