Journal
PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Volume 12, Issue 2, Pages 233-257Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/1745691616672066
Keywords
wisdom; reasoning; self; social conflict; adult development; culture
Categories
Funding
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant [435-2014-0685]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Philosophers and psychological scientists have converged on the idea that wisdom involves certain aspects of thinking (e.g., intellectual humility, recognition of uncertainty and change), enabling application of knowledge to life challenges. Empirical evidence indicates that people's ability to think wisely varies dramatically across experiential contexts that they encounter over the life span. Moreover, wise thinking varies from one situation to another, with self-focused contexts inhibiting wise thinking. Experiments can show ways to buffer thinking against bias in cases in which self-interests are unavoidable. Specifically, an ego-decentering cognitive mind-set enables wise thinking about personally meaningful issues. It appears that experiential, situational, and cultural factors are even more powerful in shaping wisdom than previously imagined. Focus on such contextual factors sheds new light on the processes underlying wise thought and its development, helps to integrate different approaches to studying wisdom, and has implications for measurement and development of wisdom-enhancing interventions.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available