How intellectual humility relates to political and religious polarization

Intellectual humility (IH) is related to less political and religious polarization, so IH may help shed light on polarization broadly. That said, IH-polarization relations may differ depending on the belief domain or identity in question, which in turn raises important implications for applied work aimed at reducing polarization. Here we simultaneously examined political and religious affective polarization in relation to IH. Across belief domains (politics and religion) and identities (Republicans, Democrats, atheists, Christians), IH was consistently related to less affective polarization. These relations tended to remain significant even when controlling for belief strength. There was limited evidence, however, that IH statistically protected against variables that predict more polarization (e.g. moralization of beliefs). Altogether, these findings highlight pressing directions for future research that can uncover the constellation of variables that might mitigate polarization in those most likely to be polarized.