We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.Are the smartest people also the wisest? Not necessarily. While traditional intellectual reasoning and procedural knowledge have helped build the communities we live in, there is a growing scientific understanding that we need emotionally balanced and better-fitting prosocial frameworks for coping with the uncertainties and complexities of life and addressing new challenges of the modern world. We are now poised on the edge of a new science of wisdom.The concept of wisdom, long (...) considered the “pinnacle of insight into the human condition”, has been that of an intangible, subjective, culturally specific entity—an unscientific... (shrink)

ABSTRACT What leads people to contribute to public life, to strengthen social cohesion, and work to better society? We investigated how co-curricular aspects of college life relate to social cognitive processes foundational for civic virtues and contribute to their development. We examined one widespread type of co-curricular college experience—studying abroad. When studying abroad, students encounter different social norms and cultures and often interact with others using a non-native language. How does immersion in an unfamiliar society affect psychological capacities, such as (...) epistemic humility and regard for others, that may be central to civic virtues? We compared measures of civic virtues across students who studied abroad, students interested in studying abroad who had not yet had that experience, and students with no interest in studying abroad to understand how differences in civic engagement and civility relate to aspects of students’ psychology such as epistemic humility, empathy, and need for cognition. (shrink)