Humble people likelier to help others

Humble people are more likely to offer time to someone in need than arrogant people are, researchers say.

Humble people are more likely to offer time to someone in need than arrogant people are, researchers say.

Humble-people-tend-to-help-others

In most cases, a person’s decision to help someone in need is influenced by temporary personal or situational factors such as time pressure, number of bystanders, momentary feelings of empathy or a person’s own distress, said Wade C. Rowatt, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience in Baylor’s College of Arts and Sciences, who led the study.

“The research indicates that humility is a positive quality with potential benefits,” Rowatt said. “While several factors influence whether people will volunteer to help a fellow human in need, it appears that humble people, on average, are more helpful than individuals who are egotistical or conceited,” he added.

The research involved three studies of college students:

In the first study, participants who reported themselves as humble also generally reported that they were helpful, even when other important personality factors, such as agreeableness, were statistically controlled.

In the second study, students evaluated a recording they were told might be broadcast later on the campus radio station. The recording described a fellow student who had injured a leg and could not attend class regularly. Each participant was asked how many hours over the next three weeks they would be willing to meet with the injured student to provide aid. Humble persons offered more time to help than less humble ones.

“Our discovery here is that the understudied trait of humility predicts helpfulness,” Rowatt added. The finding was published online in the Journal of Positive Psychology.