322. A Course in Wisdom feat. Thomas Gilovich

Aug 23, 2023

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Is the smartest person in the room also the wisest? Not necessarily. So what does it mean to be wise, and how do you go about finding that wisdom in life?

Thomas Gilovich is the Irene Blecker Rosenfeld Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. His work in social psychology includes the key textbook in the field, and has written books that touch on topics such as behavioral economics and the fallibility of human reason.

Thomas and Greg discuss what it means to truly be wise, whether or not more wisdom leads to more happiness in life, and how to train ourselves to see beyond our subjective perception of the world.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

Should we start with an understanding of the self in order to gain a better understanding of other people?

54:05: We have this great capacity to zoom in, zoom out, look at things from a variety of different angles. And, if you do that well, that's going to give you a better understanding of other people and a better understanding of yourself. So, let's look at it from my perspective. Let's look at it from their perspective, and so on. That is part and parcel of what wisdom is—turning things around to look at a hard problem from a variety of different angles. And, if that's a big component of wisdom, it would be surprising if wisdom was located in one area rather than the other.

Wisdom is where rational understanding meets human insights

03:45: To be wise and effective in this world means that you need to understand all that we've learned about rational choice, logic, etc., and combine that with knowledge of people.

Why construal principle is a big component of wisdom

25:26: One of the biggest principles of social psychology is the so-called "construal principle," which is that there's a reality out there. But we don't respond to that reality. We respond to how we interpret that reality. And knowing that's what we're reacting to is a big component of wisdom; it allows us to understand where other people are coming from, especially when their behavior on the surface immediately may not make sense to us. So, what does it mean to them that they're reacting that way? It's a big part of wisdom.

Considering happiness as a talent, not just a trait

34:35: We think of happiness as a trait, which at some level of description it is, but maybe it's better to think of it as a talent: happy people have the talent to make all these mental moves and arrange their lives in such a way that they will be happier.

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Faculty Profile at Cornell University
Author’s Profile at Sage
Thomas Gilovich on LinkedIn

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