I Might Be Wrong: The Role of Intellectual Humility in Debiasing Surgical Education

Surgical training has long valued decisiveness, technical excellence, and confidence. However, complex patient care also exposes surgeons and trainees to cognitive traps such as anchoring, confirmation bias, overconfidence, premature closure, and diagnosis momentum. This editorial argues that intellectual humility is not only an educational virtue but also a psychological precondition for debiasing. It situates intellectual humility within the broader literature on cognitive bias and debiasing, and then proposes a practical reflection scaffold organized around claims, warrants, disconfirming evidence, and revision conditions. This approach aligns with cognitive forcing strategies, diagnostic time outs, structured reflection, simulation-based metacognition training, debriefing, and checklist-based interventions. Cultivating intellectual humility through teaching, Morbidity and Mortality conferences, and attending role modeling may strengthen revisable judgment and support safer surgical care.