Wisdom in Words

I recently began to test subjects in a study of the association between words and wisdom. There is the general assumption that as we age, we become more wise. What is wisdom?
From dictionary.com...

1.	the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight.

2.	scholarly knowledge or learning: the wisdom of the schools.

3.	wise sayings or teachings; precepts.

4.	a wise act or saying.

Thanks... let's try wise...

1.	having the power of discerning and judging properly as to what is true or right; possessing discernment, judgment, or discretion.

2.	characterized by or showing such power; judicious or prudent: a wise decision.

3.	possessed of or characterized by scholarly knowledge or learning; learned; erudite: wise in the law.

4.	having knowledge or information as to facts, circumstances, etc.: We are wiser for their explanations.

Apparently, wisdom is one of those huge, concepts which tries to defy definition, yet we all seem to inherently know what it means. Wisdom appears in many different domains, specifically, life planning, moral issues, and in reflection. A confound of the age and wisdom relationship, may be that younger people are unable to have the time in which they are able to see how their decisions are choices affect future outcomes. Perhaps I have made some momentously wise decision or choice, however am unable to see the effects of that choice yet. A description of the study from Dr. Jean Gordon follows...

"The current study explores the ambiguity of wisdom by focusing on how it is transmitted and perceived. Language is the medium by which wisdom-related knowledge is usually conveyed, and the sophistication of that language is proposed to significantly affect the spirit in which the knowledge is received. If one’s word choice and/or syntactic structure sound clever or profound, one is more likely to be perceived as wise. While wisdom is expected to increase with age, aspects of language use often decline with age. This may be why an age effect has been difficult to obtain in wisdom studies, and why society holds both negative and positive stereotypes of aging. If productive language use declines with age, despite the accrual of knowledge and life experience, then the ability to pass on acquired wisdom is also likely to decline.

To test this hypothesis, a pilot study is underway to establish the extent to which listeners’ perceptions are influenced by linguistic variables. Artificially manipulated language samples differing in grammatical complexity and word choice were created. The samples were written responses to two advice‐giving scenarios, such as what to say to a young girl who wants to run away from home. The study protocol was modified to have “listeners” read the transcripts of these responses, rather than listen to audio‐recorded versions. This was judged to be a more controlled test of the hypothesis, because it factors out vocal characteristics of the speaker which would likely influence perceptions of age and gender, and possibly other factors as well, such as educational level. (A follow‐up study could test these influences by comparing judgments of written and oral samples.) Young adult subjects were asked to read the responses and judge the speakers’ knowledge, judgment, sensitivity, perceptiveness, and ability to communicate ideas, as well as whether or not subjects agree with the advice provided in the responses. Subjects were also asked to estimate the speakers’ age and education levels. These ratings are designed to tap into dimensions of wisdom derived from the literature on explicit and implicit theories of wisdom (e.g. Sternberg, 1985). Gordon and her research team expect that language variables will affect these judgments, over and above the degree to which subjects agree with the response provided."

In my short time of testing patients, I have had a lot of fun listening to and learning from the responses of the speakers in the task. It is interesting to see how the variety of life experiences, values and understanding combine to interpret the questions in a variety of ways. How will the different word variables play out in wisdom? At first I thought that more complex word variables would mean a higher rating of wisdom, however, then I started to think about it more. Some of the most wise people in history, have been the political and religious figures of our time. The ability of these people to communicate their ideas, ideals, and feelings was not through complicated speech and word structures, but through their ability to communicate effectively and colloqoially to the people. I think that ultimately it will be the message (semantics) rather than the style (syntax) which affects the rating of wisdom. It will be interesting to see how these play out.