First published in The Hindu, 1 Feb 2025
A list of intelligent people who have done foolish things is fairly long. US President, Bill Clinton, having an affair with an intern, former McKinsey MD, Rajat Gupta for engaging in insider trading, Co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs who refused treatment for pancreatic cancer are a few canonical examples. Of course, smart people doing stupid things is not limited to the rich and famous. Most people encounter these folks in daily life as well. The physics professor who loses their life savings on the stock market due to bad investments or the lawyer who falls for an online scam.
On the other hand, we tend to call certain people ‘wise.’ Wisdom is a revered trait in all cultures. But what constitutes wisdom and how is it different from intelligence? Most life decisions involve a complex web of factors that cannot always be solved solely by pure logic. Should you follow your passion and pursue a career in music or should you opt for a more pragmatic corporate job that doesn’t necessarily resonate with your strengths? Should you go abroad for your MBA after getting admitted into a top business school or should you stay back in India as your father has been diagnosed with a serious but not terminal illness?
In an article in Psyche, Maksim Rudney and Igor Grossman describe a study they undertook with various colleagues that had over 2500 people from 16 different “cultural groups” that included Peruvians, Moroccans, Japanese, Canadians and Indians among others. The participants were presented with ten vignettes of individuals that included “a scientist, a politician and a teacher” and had to compare and contrast them with one another and with their own selves using a rubric of “19 ways of dealing with a complex situation,” that did not evoke simple or clear-cut answers.
Participants had to decide whether the scientist or the teacher, based on the given descriptions, was more likely to exhibit logical thinking or impulsive behaviour, for example. They also had to rate the wisdom of each of the fictitious individuals and themselves in the given scenarios.
The authors found that people make judgments about wisdom using two main dimensions. The first, reflective orientation, refers to a person’s ability to be logical, rational and learn from past experiences while exhibiting self-regulation. A History professor who has both vast and deep knowledge of their subject and who is able to make reasoned arguments while being calm personifies this dimension of wisdom.
The second dimension, socio-emotional awareness, entails “caring for others, active listening, and the ability to navigate complex and uncertain social situations.” A counsellor who listens to each client patiently and responds in ways that suit their unique needs epitomizes this facet of wisdom. Though the two dimensions are “closely related,” a person is considered “most wise” only if they are rated high on both aspects.
The researchers also looked for cross-cultural differences in perceptions of wisdom. They hypothesized that collectivist cultures, like Asian countries, would prize the socio-emotional dimension more highly whereas individualist cultures, like Western nations, would value the reflective orientation more. However, their findings did not bear this out. People, the world over, seem to recognize both the “need to get ahead” and the “need to get along.”
Likewise, when participants were asked to rate their own wisdom, they tended to rate themselves lower on the cognitive aspect but saw themselves as being socio-emotionally intelligent. This pattern was observed across cultural groups. The authors feel this is due to the kinds of feedback we typically receive. Academic grades and performance reviews point out the lacunae in our thinking. However, we don’t necessarily get explicit critiques of how others perceive us. How can we apply the findings of this study to our lives? Most crucial decisions involve both the head and the heart. Even as we reason through problems with a rational bent, we need to maintain rapport with people and regulate ourselves accordingly.
(The writer is the author of Zero Limits: Things Every 20-Something Should Know & blogs at www.arunasankaranarayanan.com.)