You may think there are no benefits to being modest, but a study found that that modest people are much better at moderating their emotions than, well, their less modest peers.
Modesty is an interesting trait with complex implications in society. Some people value it highly, thinking there is nothing better than a person who isn’t trying to brag about themselves. At the same time, modesty isn’t really central to our culture. Society tends to promote and reward those with big egos who don’t mind showing off. With these mixed signals, it can be hard to determine if being modest is actually a good thing. It should be, but modest people are rarely the ones being celebrated.
People who are more modest are better at accepting negative feedback and regulating their emotions.
Researchers in China conducted a study that was published in the journal Human Brain Mapping. Karina Petrova summarized their findings for PsyPost. According to Petrova, the researchers defined modesty slightly differently than one might expect.
“Modest individuals tend to view themselves as a single part of a larger world,” she said. “They recognize the value and contributions of others and do not remain hyper-focused on their own status.”
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The researchers set up an interesting experiment that involved 47 young adult participants. Each was monitored using a functional MRI scanner while completing what’s known as the “Social Judgment Paradigm.”
This test required participants to decide whether they thought another person whose face they saw found them likable based solely on their photo. Then, they learned what the truth was.
“This setup created four distinct scenarios for the brain to process,” Petrova stated. “These included expected acceptance, expected rejection, unexpected acceptance, and unexpected rejection.”
It’s easy to assume that no one likes rejection, but modest people seem to take it in stride.
The researchers paid close attention to how the participants reacted when they were met with unexpected feedback. Based on brain activity, they determined that people who were less modest tended to focus more on themselves when they received feedback they didn’t see coming.
On the other hand, modest people weren’t as “self-centered” and didn’t really ruminate on the feedback the way other participants did.
Researchers also sought to discover what differences existed in the participants when it came to receiving either acceptance or rejection. When the more modest bunch got rejected, they didn’t take it too hard. Their brain activity showed that they were not suppressing their emotions, which allowed them to keep their emotions more regulated.
Interestingly, researchers also found that just because someone is modest doesn’t mean they don’t care about positive feedback. When they received acceptance responses, the area of the brain involved in “processing rewards” activated in modest people.
So, even though people who are modest may seem super down-to-earth, they still appreciate hearing good things about themselves, just like the next person.
There is surprisingly little information about what characteristics modest people have, but researchers have explored similar traits.
For example, a 2017 study from Duke University examined what it means to have intellectual humility. People who are intellectually humble can have strong beliefs that they cling to, but they are open to finding out they are wrong about something.
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Researchers found that people who are intellectually humble are better at examining evidence they are presented with and determining which argument is strongest. This connects directly to the researchers’ findings in the initial study. People who are modest are alright with not being right all the time, and it doesn’t faze them as much.
Possessing a sense of modesty, intellectual humility, or whatever you want to call it means that you’re just a little bit more open to the world around you. If you get rejected or things don’t go the way you planned, it’s not the end of the world. Instead, you’re able to see that the world doesn’t revolve around you, and there’s so much more to life than being right.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
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