Students’ Social Perceptions of Humility and Arrogance Among Band Directors

Abstract

In this study, I build on growing research examining humility in musical contexts by investigating whether band students perceive humility to be a positive and desirable social quality or a social weakness among band directors. Middle school, high school, and undergraduate band students (N = 117) evaluated the likability, knowledgeability, and preference for humble and arrogant band director targets by assessing recorded interviews with each director following a fictitious performance. The humble target demonstrated nonsuperiority and other-orientedness and acknowledged his room for growth in his interview, while the arrogant target spoke with a degree of self-importance, an inflated self-view, and a desire for credit and prestige in his interview. Results indicated that overall, participants expressed greater likability toward the humble director and overwhelmingly preferred him to the arrogant director (82.76%) but did not ascribe greater knowledgeability to either target. These differences were contingent on school level and whether participants were presented with the humble or arrogant target first. Findings support the pertinence of modeling humility in music teaching and refute the implicit premise that teachers who behave in an arrogant manner might appear more competent or capable among students.