Attachment and cognitive openness: Emotional underpinnings of intellectual humility

The present research begins to fill an important gap in the current literature about intellectual humility (IH) by investigating how an understanding of emotion, emotion regulation, and attachment are crucial to understanding IH, particularly in the arena in which IH may matter most: heated interpersonal disagreement. The primary aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between attachment orientation and cognitive openness - an indication of IH. Study 1 found that participants primed in a secure attachment condition demonstrated significantly greater cognitive openness to counterarguments with regard to (a)theistic belief than those in an ambivalent priming condition. Those identified as secure in their enduring dispositional attachment orientation exhibited significantly higher trait openness than those categorized as avoidant. Study 2 found that attachment anxiety, emotional valence, and the rated intelligence of an interlocutor significantly predicted participants' openness to hear more counterarguments.