Biologist Edward Osborne Wilson once said, "we are drowning in information while starving for wisdom." Traditionally, wisdom has been associated with consciousness, stress, and resilience.
In 2019, researchers from the University of California San Diego began defining wisdom scientifically based on research from the 1970s. Their definition of wisdom contains the six components of pro-social behaviors like compassion, emotional regulation, self-reflection or insight, acceptance of divergent perspectives, decisiveness, and social decision-making.
Wisdom has also been previously conceptualized as insight into the human condition which varies from different cultures and cannot be measured scientifically. For years, scientists have been researching to quantify the powerful concept of wisdom.
A lot of religious texts also contain definitions and stories of wisdom, such as the Bible, Torah, Quran, Tipitaka, and the words of Confucius. Wisdom is also highly prized by ancient philosophers and is found in cultural proverbs that have been passed down many generations.
Scientifically Quantifying Wisdom
According to "The New Science of Practical Wisdom," theoretical wisdom is defined as the understanding of the deep nature of reality and people. Meanwhile, practical wisdom is associated with making good decisions or "doing the right thing, at the right time, for the right reasons." It is the latter that researchers have been trying to scientifically quantify.
In a new study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, they have added spirituality as a seventh component. Dr. Dilip Jeste from UC San Diego shared that throughout history, spirituality as a marker of wisdom has been a subject of controversy. However, their study shows that spirituality is significantly associated with better overall health and adds to a person's wisdom.
Using the San Diego Wisdom Scale, over 1,700 American adults between the ages of 20 and 82 participated in the study. The team also used other tests to measure levels of mental health, spirituality, religiosity, and strength of relationships.
Spirituality and Wisdom
Professor Michael Thomas from Colorado State University said that overall, the wisdom score had a stronger association with pro-social behaviors like empathy, compassion, self-reflection, and altruism compared to spirituality. Nevertheless, spirituality is still a significant indicator of wisdom.
Spirituality was also found more commonly in older people while women scored higher than men. It is not the same as religious faith, explained Jeste, "but is characterized by humility and ever-present connectedness to oneself or to others or to an entity that is transcendent, such as MotherNature or God or the soul." Spirituality helps reduce stress so that people can be happier, healthier, and feel at peace.
Having a connection to something also reduces loneliness, said Jeste. Loneliness and wisdom have a strong opposite connection meaning that people with more wisdom are also less lonely.
Thomas noted that there need to be more diverse studies "to explore mediation effects of these components on well-being and health." It is critical to study if interventions targeting wisdom and its seven components can improve the overall quality of life and health.
Read Also: Can Faith and Science Co-exist? Former Atheist Dr. Francis Collins Believes they Can
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