Humility: A qualitative review

Humility has gained empirical traction as a character strength. Between January 2000 and August 2015, 96 empirical articles on humility were published, and we conducted a qualitative systematic review. Humility was defined as having three aspects: accurate self-presentation and attitude of teachability; modest self-presentation; and other-orientedness. Several types of humility were identified. The findings are organized into seven hypotheses. The most support was found for the social hypotheses, spiritual hypothesis, virtues and vices hypotheses, societal peace hypothesis, and structure of humility hypothesis. For the structure of humility, the first two aspects are well supported, but it is unclear whether humility requires an orientation toward others or merely lack of self-focus. Little evidence supported the Humility-Health hypotheses. Little evidence supported the connection between humility and ultimate life satisfaction. The chapter suggests an urgent need to investigate little-studied hypotheses, especially health-related hypotheses.