The Paradoxical Relationship Between Critical Thinking and Openness to Experience

Abstract

Critical thinking is influenced by both intelligence and openness to experience (Clifford, Boufal, & Kurtz, 2004). However, openness distinctively contains an intellectual aspect and an experiential aspect (DeYoung, Quilty, & Peterson, 2007). The current study proposed that critical thinking would correlate with intelligence (H1) and intellectual openness (H2), but not with experiential openness (H3); the intellectual aspect of openness would contribute uniquely to critical thinking beyond intelligence (H4) and experiential openness (H5), respectively. Measures of critical thinking (WGCTA; Watson & Glaser, 1980), intelligence (Shipley-2; Gruber, Martin, & Klein, 2009), Big Five traits (BFAS; DeYoung et al., 2007), and dysfunctional traits (PID-5-BF; Krueger, Derringer, Markon, Watson, & Skodol, 2013) were administered to 110 undergraduates. The results supported all hypotheses, except H4, suggesting that the unique contribution of intellectual openness to critical thinking is overshadowed by the superlative contribution from general intelligence. Implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.