The Scale of Wisdom

Psychologists and biologists from the University of San Diego have developed a new scale for measuring the level of wisdom in its connection with the neurobiological and psychological characteristics of a person.

Human wisdom is an ancient concept that has recently become the object of various studies, so experts have a need to give this concept a clear definition and learn how to measure it. Currently, there are nine scales for measuring this characteristic, for example, the “Three-dimensional Scale of Wisdom.” However, existing tools do not take into account the latest discoveries in the field of the functioning of the human brain and its connection with the personal qualities of an individual.

The researchers created a scale that, according to them, takes into account the neurobiological characteristics of a person, and called it the “San Diego Wisdom Scale.”

First, based on existing concepts in the scientific literature, scientists identified six signs of wisdom:

1. general knowledge of life and the ability to give sound advice;
2. the ability to control your emotions;
3. prosocial behaviors such as empathy and altruism;
4. insight is the ability to deeply analyze oneself and one’s actions.;
5. tolerance of other people’s opinions;
6. the ability to make decisions quickly and efficiently.

The researchers emphasize that wisdom is not the sum of these components, but the result of their synergy.

Then, also based on scientific literature, scientists calculated the brain regions that are associated with the selected personality traits. Most of them are located in the prefrontal cortex, limbic system, and amygdala.

Then, 24 statements were written to measure each characteristic, for example, “I can easily guess what mood another person is in,” “I can’t think well when I’m upset,” “I stay calm even under pressure,” “I avoid self-reflection,” etc.

Each of them referred to one of the six signs of wisdom. The subjects had to indicate whether they agreed with these statements on a scale from 1 to 5.

The researchers tested the scale on 524 participants in the longitudinal Successful Aging Evaluation study, which focuses on the mental, cognitive, and psychosocial aspects of growing up throughout life. The participants ranged in age from 25 to 104, mostly with higher education.

The subjects were measured on the San Diego Wisdom Scale, as well as, for comparison, on some other scales, and their mental characteristics were also measured.

The new scale helped to successfully measure five of the six identified characteristics of wisdom and showed the differences in this parameter among different people. The “general knowledge of life” attribute was only partially measured. It turned out that wisdom has an inverse correlation with age and a very slight relationship with the level of education and gender. It is much more related to the level of anxiety, depression, experience of cognitive failures (negative correlation) and the level of happiness and life satisfaction (positive correlation).

Source: “The Attic”.