Examining the possibilities for volitional character change in compassion and intellectual humility through a three-month online intervention

Abstract

While recent research indicates that people can intentionally change specific personality traits associated with self-improvement, it is unclear whether such volitional personality change interventions can work for improving other-oriented character traits such as compassion or intellectual humility. We conducted a three-month pre-registered online intervention focused on these traits with a representative sample of U.S. established adults (NT1 = 500, 4,731 total observations) in two active intervention groups for mutual comparisons. Results of self-reported weekly (state) and global (trait) assessments showed that people who chose intellectual humility showed significant increases in both state and trait intellectual humility, while people who chose compassion showed significant increases in state compassion, but no increases in trait compassion. Enjoyment of weekly tasks significantly predicted change in both state intellectual humility and compassion. Techniques typically used in volitional personality change interventions were found to be somewhat effective in promoting change, although the observed effects were more robust for intellectual humility. This study provides novel insights into the challenges of promoting volitional change in character traits.