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Across
cultures, wisdom has been considered one of the most revered human
qualities. Although the truly wise may seem few and far between, empirical
research examining wisdom suggests that it isn’t an exceptional trait
possessed by a small handful of bearded philosophers after all – in fact,
the latest studies suggest that most of us have the ability to make wise
decisions, given the right context.
‘It
appears that experiential, situational, and cultural factors are even more
powerful in shaping wisdom than previously imagined,’ says Associate
Professor Igor Grossmann of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
‘Recent empirical findings from cognitive, developmental, social, and
personality psychology cumulatively suggest that people’s ability to reason
wisely varies dramatically across experiential and situational contexts.
Understanding the role of such contextual factors offers unique insights
into understanding wisdom in daily life, as well as how it can be enhanced
and taught.’
It
seems that it’s not so much that some people simply possess wisdom and
others lack it, but that our ability to reason wisely depends on a variety
of external factors. ‘It is impossible to characterize thought processes
attributed to wisdom without considering the role of contextual factors,’
explains Grossmann. ‘In other words, wisdom is not solely an “inner
quality” but rather unfolds as a function of situations people happen to be
in. Some situations are more likely to promote wisdom than others.’
Coming
up with a definition of wisdom is challenging, but Grossmann and his
colleagues have identified four key characteristics as part of a framework
of wise reasoning. One is intellectual humility or recognition of the
limits of our own knowledge, and another is appreciation of perspectives
wider than the issue at hand. Sensitivity to the possibility of change in
social relations is also key, along with compromise or integration of
different attitudes and beliefs.
Grossmann
and his colleagues have also found that one of the most reliable ways to
support wisdom in
our
own day-to-day decisions is to look at scenarios from a third-party
perspective, as though giving advice to a friend. Research suggests that
when adopting a first-person viewpoint we focus on ‘the focal features of
the environment’ and when we adopt a third-person, ‘observer’ viewpoint we
reason more broadly and focus more on interpersonal and moral ideals such
as justice and impartiality. Looking at problems from this more expansive
viewpoint appears to foster cognitive processes related to wise decisions.
What
are we to do, then, when confronted with situations like a disagreement
with a spouse or negotiating a contract at work, that require us to take a
personal stake? Grossmann argues that even when we aren’t able to change
the situation, we can still evaluate these experiences from different perspectives.
For
example, in one experiment that took place during the peak of a recent
economic recession, graduating college seniors were asked to reflect on
their job prospects. The students were instructed to imagine their career
either ‘as if you were a distant observer’ or ‘before your own eyes as if
you were right there’. Participants in the group assigned to the ‘distant
observer’ role displayed more wisdom-related reasoning (intellectual
humility and recognition of change) than did participants in the control group.
In
another study, couples in long-term romantic relationships were instructed
to visualize an unresolved relationship conflict either through the eyes of
an outsider or from their own perspective. Participants then discussed the
incident with their partner for 10 minutes, after which they wrote down
their thoughts about it. Couples in the ‘other’s eyes’ condition were
significantly more likely to rely on wise reasoning – recognizing others’
perspectives and searching for a compromise – compared to the couples in
the egocentric condition.
‘Ego-decentering
promotes greater focus on others and enables a bigger picture, conceptual
view of the experience, affording recognition of intellectual humility and
change,’ says Grossmann.
We
might associate wisdom with intelligence or particular personality traits,
but research shows only a small positive relationship between wise thinking
and crystallized intelligence and the personality traits of openness and
agreeableness. ‘It is remarkable how much people can vary in their wisdom
from one situation to the next, and how much stronger such contextual effects
are for understanding the relationship between wise judgment and its social
and affective outcomes as compared to the generalized “traits”,’ Grossmann
explains. ‘That is, knowing how wisely a person behaves in a given situation
is more informative for understanding their emotions or likelihood to forgive
[or] retaliate as compared to knowing whether the person may be wise “in
general”.’
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