Wisdom, bias, and balance: Toward a process-sensitive measurement of wisdom-related cognition.

Abstract

Philosophers and behavioral scientists refer to wisdom as unbiased reasoning that guides one toward balance of interests and promotes a good life. However, major instruments developed to test wisdom appear biased, and it is unclear whether they capture balance-related tendencies. We examined whether shifting from global, de-contextualized reports to state-level reports about concrete situations provides a less biased method to assess wise reasoning (e.g., intellectual humility, recognition of uncertainty and change, consideration of the broader context at hand and perspectives of others, integration of these perspectives/compromise), which may be aligned with the notion of balancing interests. Results of a large-scale psychometric investigation (N = 4,463) revealed that the novel situated wise reasoning scale (SWIS) is reliable and appears independent of psychological biases (attribution bias, bias blind spot, self-deception, impression management), whereas global wisdom reports are subject to such biases. Moreover, SWIS scores were positively related to indices of living well (e.g., adaptive emotion regulation, mindfulness), and balancing of cooperative and self-protective interests, goals (influence-vs.-adjustment) and causal inferences about conflict (attribution to the self-vs.-other party). In contrast, global wisdom reports were unrelated or negatively related to balance-related measures. Notably, people showed modest within-person consistency in wise reasoning across situations/over time, suggesting that a single-shot measurement may be insufficient for whole understanding of traitlevel wisdom. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for research on wisdom, judgment and decision making, well-being, and prosociality.

A Theory of Wisdom Needs Theory of Mind

“…Moreover, the relationship 9 between intellectual humility and prosocial behavior is mediated by both cognitive and emotional empathy (Krumrei-Mancuso, 2017), but not explained by a multitude of other psychological traits and factors (Exline & Hill, 2012). Additionally, several scale measures of intellectual humility and wisdom find cognitive-empathy (trait perspective-taking) to be one of the largest correlates (Brienza et al, 2018;LaBouff et al, 2012). These findings in the intellectual humility literature strongly suggest that the role of ToM processes in the psychology of wisdom is unexplored by the Common Wisdom Model.…”

Southerners Are Wiser Than Northerners Regarding Interpersonal Conflicts in China

“…This concept predominately builds on earlier work within the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm and neo-Piagetian developmental psychology (Basseches, 1980;Baltes and Smith, 2008;Kallio, 2015). To measure wise reasoning economically using large sample sizes, Brienza et al (2018) created the Situated Wise Reasoning Scale (SWIS), which addresses variables such as perspective taking, consideration of change and alternatives, intellectual humility, search for compromise/resolution, and adopting an outsider's vantage point. We use this scale in the current study.…”

“…The SWIS was used to measure wise reasoning ability in interpersonal conflicts (Brienza et al, 2018). Participants were first asked to recall recent experiences of conflict with a friend or colleague.…”

Bridge Over Troubled Water: Commenting on Kovacs and Conway's Process Overlap Theory

“…Dialectical reasoning involves recognition of limits of knowledge or intellectual humility, consideration of change and different perspectives on an issue, as well as consideration of ways to integrate diverse viewpoints. The idea of post-formal, dialectical reasoning as a cognitive feature of wisdom is present in several dominant conceptualizations of wisdom today (e.g., Baltes & Smith, 2008;Brienza, Kung, Santos, Bobocel, & Grossmann, 2018;Grossmann, 2017b;Mickler & Staudinger, 2008). Notably, the assumption of post-formal operations developing throughout adulthood is inconsistent with the Eriksonian idea of wisdom being exclusively an ideal later life end state.…”

“…Pertinent to the question of convergence of the PMC characteristics, psychometric models with a single latent factor across these aspects of meta-cognition appear to show superior fit compared to multi-factor models (Brienza et al, 2018). The convergence of the PMC components on a single factor is also evident in daily diary reports on the most significant challenges of the day (Grossmann, Gerlach, & Denissen, 2016).…”