Humility Predicts Eudaimonic Well-Being and Compassionate Action in a Daily Experience Sampling Study

Abstract

Humility predicts greater psychological well-being and prosocial behaviour (Exline & Hill, 2012; Worthington et al., 2017). However, research is largely cross-sectional, and mechanisms underlying these relationships remain unexplored. Further, few studies explore nuances in the relationship between humility and compassion (e.g., motivations for acting compassionately), and none have empirically examined whether humility predicts received compassion. Using the Daily Reconstruction Method (Kahneman et al., 2004), the current study examines the relationship between humility and the following outcome variables: eudaimonic well-being, given compassion, received compassion, and how freely chosen or externally pressured participants felt their compassionate actions were over one week. Multilevel modelling demonstrated that on average, humble individuals report greater well-being, give and receive more compassion, and report more autonomous compassion. Compassion did not mediate the relationship between humility and well-being. These findings suggest humility may be an important individual difference variable with intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits, and implications are discussed.