Interdisciplinary researchers tend to be more collaborative, curious, and intellectually humble

By Stephanie M. McPherson

A new Schiller Institute study shows researchers who have been awarded funding for interdisciplinary projects identify stronger with core values of collaboration, curiosity, and intellectual humility than their less interdisciplinary peers. These modes of thinking are considered vital for advancing research in a growing number of fields and suggest increased interdisciplinary funding would be beneficial across the board. 

“We found that being more intellectually humble is a strong predictor of listening to diverse perspectives that often contradict or might not align with your own,” says Stylianos Syropoulos, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Schiller Institute and the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Boston College and the lead researcher on the study. “Measures of valuing collaboration and curiosity as well as being more intellectually humble are all higher for those who receive interdisciplinary grants, as is interdisciplinary engagement and enjoyment of research.” 

With intellectual humility, researchers acknowledge that they may have blind spots or knowledge gaps even within their areas of expertise. It opens the door to collaboration and curiosity, allowing researchers to find partners who can help fill those gaps. Faculty who have been supported by an interdisciplinary grant are more likely to self-identify with these virtues, and engage in research and activities that further interdisciplinary goals.

“To promote interdisciplinarity, universities should seek to cultivate an environment which financially and culturally supports such collaborations,” says Laura J. Steinberg, Seidner Family Executive Director of the Schiller Institute. 

This work, which was funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, will be presented at April’s American Educational Research Association conference. 

In this project, professors across Boston College were invited to take part in a survey that had them self-rank their affinity for collaboration, curiosity, and intellectual humility. Surveys were sent during the spring semesters of 2022 and 2023 with 522 responses generated between the two offerings. Respondents were asked if they had applied for and/or received an interdisciplinary grant, and whether they had engaged in other interdisciplinary behaviors, from reading research papers outside of their academic area to giving an interdisciplinary talk. 

These findings were supported by a follow-up survey delivered through the Academic Leaders Network of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Steinberg joined the ALN in 2023 and served as co-chair of its Interdisciplinary Collaboration Committee, where she discussed Syropoulos’s work. Committee members were intrigued, and Steinberg and co-chair Marcia Mardis of Florida State University arranged to distribute the survey to faculty at participating ACC schools. Results were strikingly similar to the results generated from the BC survey.

“This lends credence that these effects are not necessarily unique to Boston College, but that having the resources and providing them to faculty to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration appears to make them more intellectually humble and collaborative, enjoy the research more, engage in interdisciplinary more,” says Syropoulos. 

That’s not to say faculty who are not awarded grants are unreceptive to interdisciplinary efforts. 

“The data we have on interdisciplinary practices [show that] many of these percentages are really high,” even when adjusted for having received a grant, says Steinberg. “For example, 91 percent of respondents read scholarly literature that was outside their primary field. It’s encouraging to see.”

Interdisciplinary work has benefits beyond faculty interest in the collaborative process. It increases public trust that multiple avenues have been considered during a scientific study, especially in social sciences where researchers deal with more fraught issues such as public policy or climate change — Syropoulos’s areas of expertise. His broader body of research focuses on intergroup conflict, climate change, inequality, and prejudice.

“The connecting thread is taking social psychology and applying it to moral decision making, hoping to produce positive social change,” he says. 

He is intrigued by the idea of making headway in the climate change discussion using an intergenerational decision-making approach, which reframes the conversation away from the science that some deniers find controversial and toward the phenomenon’s effects on future generations.

“A lot of the time the narrative is on climate change, which inherently pushes conservative folks away from engaging,” he says. “So, if we make it more about the intergenerational aspect of how your own children won't be able to enjoy nature or national parks or have clean air, clean water, this would engage people much more.”Because the areas he works in are inherently interdisciplinary, he understands the importance of such work to furthering knowledge.

“By highlighting the virtues [we looked at in this study] and instilling them in faculty, we could increase collaborations across departments,” he says. “Being curious opens you up to look at other perspectives. Being collaborative makes you have the disposition [to work together successfully] and intellectual humility allows you to more easily open yourself up to other perspectives.”