How Wise Are You?


Can assessing one's wisdom be distilled down to a 5-minute test?

My friend, Dr. Dilip Jeste, along with his colleague, have created this test to give you a sense of how you index on the seven components that they believe most represent wisdom: self-reflection, pro-social behaviors (empathy, compassion, and altruism), emotional regulation, acceptance of diverse perspectives, decisiveness, social advising (giving rational and helpful advice to others) and spirituality. Their white paper outlines why these seven qualities are so foundational to wisdom.

While I’m a sucker for taking any personality test, I’m also a little cautious. After all, wisdom may be in the eye of the beholder, and anyone can “game” a test. Also, more than a few philosophers believe wisdom is in the “not knowing,” or if you prefer, it’s in the questions we ask. Even so, feel free to try this parlor game as the academics who’ve done this work are very reputable. Of course, I wouldn’t advise comparing scores with others as that wouldn’t be very wise. LOL.

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