THE MODERATING EFFECT OF HUMILITY ON THE FEEDBACK-PERSISTENCE LINK

Abstract

Humility has been heralded as a desirable characteristic often discussed in the terms of coping with success and failure. In addition, persistence is seen as an important predictor of future success. The current paper sought to understand the relationship between humility and persistence in response to success and failure feedback, based on the findings that failure feedback leads to lower persistence. Specifically, the study proposed that humble individuals will moderate the feedback-persistence link by persisting equally regardless of the feedback valence. This prediction was tested experimentally using the false feedback paradigm and a recall task to induce state humility. Participants had to complete a flicker task comprising of three solvable images, before recalling a memory where they felt humility or non-humility (i.e., a neutral control and a comparison state of authentic pride). They then received fictitious feedback on their prior performance which indicated success or failure, before completing a second flicker task comprising of three unsolvable images to measure persistence (elapsed time). Hierarchical regression analyses were unable to confirm the hypothesis, revealing only an effect of feedback. Reasons for the null-findings and directions for future research are discussed.