What Is Wisdom, and Can It Be Taught?
Why Read This
What Makes This Article Worth Your Time
Summary
What This Article Is About
Science journalist Emily Laber-Warren surveys a growing field of researchers — psychologists, sociologists, and philosophers — who are applying rigorous scientific methods to understand wisdom: what it is, how it develops, and whether it can be deliberately cultivated. Beginning with the pioneering work of the late psychologist Paul Baltes and his Berlin Wisdom Paradigm, the article traces how competing researchers have attempted to define and measure wisdom — with ongoing debates about whether the concept should include emotional capacities like compassion alongside cognitive skills.
The article also explores how wisdom can be acquired, noting that painful or challenging experiences alone are insufficient — five specific psychological prerequisites, identified by developmental psychologist Judith Glück, must be present for experience to yield wisdom. Researchers like Igor Grossmann and Monika Ardelt are testing interventions — from self-distancing writing exercises to practice-based university courses — with results suggesting that while no one becomes wise overnight, the capacity for wiser thinking can meaningfully improve with deliberate practice.
Key Points
Main Takeaways
Wisdom Is Not the Same as Intelligence
Paul Baltes demonstrated that analytical skill and intelligence are distinct from wisdom — some of the most intellectually capable people can behave very unwisely.
Age Alone Doesn’t Guarantee Wisdom
Baltes found in a 1990 study that wise responses were equally likely across young adults, middle-aged, and older adults — mere ageing is no guarantee of wisdom.
Defining Wisdom Remains Contested
Researchers disagree on whether wisdom is a set of qualities or a mental process, and whether emotional capacities like compassion belong in its definition alongside cognitive skills.
Experience Alone Is Not Enough
Hard experiences like illness or loss don’t automatically produce wisdom — five specific prerequisites identified by Glück must be present for experience to translate into genuine wisdom.
Self-Distancing Boosts Wise Reasoning
Grossmann’s research shows that writing about personal difficulties in the third person or imagining distance from them produces measurably wiser reasoning, with cumulative long-term effects.
Wisdom Can Be Deliberately Cultivated
Ardelt’s 2020 study found that students in practice-based wisdom courses showed measurable wisdom gains, while those in traditional theoretical classes actually saw wisdom levels decline.
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Article Analysis
Breaking Down the Elements
Main Idea
Wisdom Is a Learnable Skill, Not a Fixed Trait
The article’s central claim is that wisdom — though notoriously hard to define and measure — is not simply the province of the aged or the naturally gifted. Science increasingly suggests it can be cultivated through deliberate practices. This matters urgently: researchers frame wisdom as a potential corrective force in a world facing violent conflict, climate change, and social fragmentation.
Purpose
To Inform & Inspire Action
Laber-Warren writes to make frontier scientific research accessible to a general audience — summarising competing academic frameworks without taking sides. There is also a motivational undercurrent: by demonstrating that wisdom is learnable, the article implicitly encourages readers to reflect on their own habits of mind and consider adopting practices that foster wiser thinking.
Structure
Narrative Hook → Historical → Definitional Debate → Interventions → Hopeful Close
The article opens with a personal case study (Emily Swanson) to draw readers in, then shifts to the scientific history of wisdom research (Baltes). It surveys competing definitional frameworks (Baltes vs. Grossmann vs. Ardelt), before moving to evidence-based interventions and closing on a realistic but optimistic note about incremental growth. This five-beat structure is characteristic of longform science journalism.
Tone
Measured, Curious & Cautiously Optimistic
Laber-Warren maintains the even-handed tone of quality science journalism — presenting competing frameworks fairly, acknowledging the limitations of each method, and resisting overstatement. There is measured optimism throughout: the article does not promise transformative change but consistently suggests that modest, meaningful growth is achievable, grounding abstract concepts with relatable human stories.
Key Terms
Vocabulary from the Article
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Tough Words
Challenging Vocabulary
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Extremely demanding and exhausting, requiring great effort and endurance — physically, mentally, or emotionally.
“She fully expected the process to be grueling.”
Avoiding the formation of critical opinions; accepting thoughts, feelings, or behaviours without attaching moral judgement to them.
“She learned to observe her thoughts and emotions in a more detached, nonjudgmental way.”
A point of disagreement or dispute; an assertion held by one side in an argument, or the heated debate surrounding a contested issue.
“One point of contention is whether wisdom is a set of qualities, or the process of how we evaluate situations.”
Caused to go off course or lose focus; disrupted from one’s intended path of thinking or behaviour by an external or internal force.
“The mind is too state-dependent — too easily derailed by stress, fatigue or frustration.”
A position or perspective from which something is viewed or considered, especially one that gives a broader or more advantageous view of a situation.
“You’re approaching it from this different vantage point. So that keeps you flexible.”
Excessive absorption in one’s own thoughts, feelings, and concerns to the exclusion of attention to others or the broader world around oneself.
“The important thing is to move beyond self-preoccupation, they say.”
Reading Comprehension
Test Your Understanding
5 questions covering different RC question types
1According to Paul Baltes’ 1990 study, older adults demonstrated significantly wiser responses than younger adults.
2What is the primary limitation of Ardelt’s self-report questionnaire method of measuring wisdom?
3Click the sentence that best explains why Ardelt criticised the wisdom frameworks of both Baltes and Grossmann.
4Evaluate whether each of the following statements is True or False based on the article.
In Glück and Weststrate’s 2017 study, “exploratory” processing of difficult experiences was associated with higher wisdom scores than “redemptive” processing.
Ardelt’s 2020 study found that students in both practice-based and theoretical academic courses showed equal gains in wisdom scores by semester’s end.
The scientific study of wisdom was pioneered only in the last 40 years, despite wisdom as a concept being of interest throughout human history.
Select True or False for all three statements, then click “Check Answers”
5What can be most reasonably inferred from Howard Nusbaum’s closing remark that “you’re going to get grumpy and pissed off and forget”?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Glück identified five prerequisites: the ability to manage uncertainty, openness to change and new perspectives, the practice of reflecting on one’s experiences, the capacity to regulate emotional ups and downs, and the ability to practise empathy. The article notes that without these, even profoundly difficult experiences — illness, loss, major life upheaval — may yield little or no wisdom in the person who endures them.
Developed by psychologist Paul Baltes at the Max Planck Institute in the 1980s, the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm scores responses to invented life dilemmas on five criteria: knowledge about life and human nature, strategies for navigating challenges, understanding that values differ across people, awareness that priorities shift with context, and the ability to tolerate uncertainty. It was the first relatively objective scientific test of wisdom.
Grossmann asks participants to write about personal difficulties in the third person, or to imagine political events happening in a distant country. This psychological distance produces higher scores on his wise reasoning scale. The boosts are modest individually, but the article reports that practising self-distancing over time has cumulative effects — potentially improving skills like resolving relationship conflicts more skilfully.
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This article is rated Advanced. While Laber-Warren writes accessibly, the piece requires readers to track multiple researchers and their distinct — sometimes competing — frameworks simultaneously. It uses specialised academic terminology (paradigm, self-distancing, redemptive processing), demands nuanced inference from indirect evidence, and requires readers to distinguish between the limitations of different methodologies — all hallmarks of Advanced comprehension.
Knowable Magazine is published by Annual Reviews, a nonprofit organisation that produces peer-reviewed scientific literature. Its articles synthesise findings from researchers working at major universities and research institutes, are written by credentialled science journalists, and cite primary academic sources — including, in this piece, papers from the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology. This editorial rigour distinguishes it from general-interest science writing.
The Ultimate Reading Course covers 9 RC question types: Multiple Choice, True/False, Multi-Statement T/F, Text Highlight, Fill in the Blanks, Matching, Sequencing, Error Spotting, and Short Answer. This comprehensive coverage prepares you for any reading comprehension format you might encounter.
