Culturally Humble People Change, or Do They?

Abstract

Regardless of political/religious affiliation, people tend to hold prejudice towards those with whom they disagree. Cultural humility may be a factor that could mitigate the negative effects of disagreements stemming from religious differences. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore whether cultural humility was related to changes in viewpoint following a religious disagreement. A sample of 174 undergraduate college students were paired with a student with whom they disagreed and discussed a contentious religious issue. Afterward, they rated their discussion partner’s cultural humility, their own change in viewpoint, and perceptions of their partner’s change in viewpoint. Results indicated that perceptions of the discussion partner’s cultural humility were related to perceptions of the discussion partner’s change in viewpoint, but not to the partner’s actual self-reported change in viewpoint. We discuss implications of this discrepancy, including potential bias in zero-acquaintance ratings and possible implications for ongoing negotiations in real-world situations.