7 factors that tell you how wise you are
If you have always considered yourself to be a wise person, a new test could determine just how right you are.
Researchers at the University of California’s School of Medicine have devised a scale that can help determine an individual’s level of wisdom with a high level of validity.
Previously, the team had created a 28-item scale, which has been used in large national and international studies, research, and clinical trials to assess wisdom.
Their latest scale, published in International Psychogeriatrics, was found to be a reliable and comparable measure of wisdom, which has a strong association with wellbeing.
“Wisdom measures are increasingly being used to study factors that impact mental health and optimal ageing,” said Dr Dilip V Jeste, the study’s senior author and a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the university.
“We wanted to test if a list of only seven factors could provide valuable information to test wisdom.”
The scale is made up of seven statements that relate to the seven components of wisdom: self-reflection, emotional regulation, pro-social behaviours such as empathy and compassion, acceptance of diverse perspectives, decisiveness, social advising, and spirituality.
Participants then rate the statements on a one to five scale, from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
Examples include “I remain calm under pressure” and “I avoid situations where I know my help will be needed”, and others ask participants to rate their abilities to make major decisions, engage in self-reflection, and how they feel about diverse viewpoints.
“Shorter doesn’t mean less valid,” Dr Jeste said. “We selected the right type of questions to get important information that not only contributes to the advancement of science but also supports our previous data that wisdom correlates with health and longevity.
Dr Jeste said assessing levels of wisdom is useful for reducing loneliness and improving overall wellbeing.
“Like the COVID-19 vaccine protects us from the novel coronavirus, wisdom can aid in protecting us from loneliness,” he explained. “Thus, we can potentially help end a behavioural pandemic of loneliness, suicides and opioid abuse that has been going on for the last 20 years.”
With that in mind, Dr Jeste said future research would see the test be used to assess wisdom in genetic, biological, psychosocial and cultural studies, as well as other factors relating to mental, physical and cognitive health.
“We need wisdom for surviving and thriving in life,” Dr Jeste said.
“Now, we have a list of questions that take less than a couple of minutes to answer that can be put into clinical practice to try to help individuals.”
For the abbreviated test, Jeste, along with coauthors and colleagues, chose one pivotal question (out of four prompts) from each of wisdom's seven subscale categories:
The Seven-Item Wisdom Scale Prompts (Subscale in Parenthesis)
"I tend to postpone making major decisions as long as I can." (Decisiveness)
"I avoid self-reflection." (Self-Reflection)
"I avoid situations where I know my help will be needed." (Prosocial Behaviors)
"I often don't know what to tell people when they come to me for advice." (Social Advising)
"I remain calm under pressure." (Emotional Regulation)
"I enjoy being exposed to diverse viewpoints." (Acceptance of Divergent Perspectives)
"My spiritual belief gives me inner strength." (Spirituality)
If you’re curious and would like to test yourself on the original 28-question scale, you can do so here!
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