On Wisdom

(First Broadcast - 28th December 2018) Can we design our workplaces to generate wiser behaviour? Why do we work anyway, and would we still work if we didn’t get paid? Do employers even want their employees to develop wisdom? Barry Schwartz joins Igor and Charles to discuss how Aristotle’s Practical Wisdom applies in the 21st Century, the reasons why we work, idea technology, the unintended consequences of rules-based systems, and the moral dangers and limits of incentives. Igor proposes the idea of algorithm-based wise machines, Barry suggests companies hire for character rather than skill, and Charles learns why, in wiser work places, the cost of free-riders may well be a price worth paying. Special Guest: Barry Schwartz.

Igor and Charles return with a special announcement for On Wisdom listeners ...

A disturbing thought - might it be impossible for us to directly observe the workings of our minds? Richard Nisbett joins Igor and Charles to discuss a life lived on the cutting edge of behavioral sciences in the second part of the 20th Century. He shares tales from his groundbreaking research into our faulty mindware, discussing various biases, cultural differences in cognitive processes, our inability to directly observe our mental processes, and why job interviews are not only unhelpful but potentially harmful to our ability to hire the best person for the job. Igor is keen to learn about the human beings behind some of the 20th Century’s academic idols in social psychology like Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky and Lee Ross, Richard explains why important work and interesting work are not necessarily the same thing, and Charles struggles to make sense of when we do and don’t intervene to help strangers in peril. Welcome to Episode 43. Special Guest: Richard Nisbett.

Which kind of wisdom will people need to master to overcome major negative societal and/or psychological changes after the pandemic? In the last episode of the World After Covid miniseries, Igor and Charles share and discuss responses from 57 of the world's leading behavioral and social scientists, collected as part of the World After Covid (https://worldaftercovid.info/) project. Four final responses are selected, covering themes of big picture focus on what's important, shared humanity, long-term orientation, and political structural change in the midst of the pandemic. Igor reflects on how the immediate context can dramatically influence even experts' forecasts, and Charles is forced to question his cherished belief that people are ultimately good. Featuring: Barry Schwartz (https://www.swarthmore.edu/profile/barry-schwartz), Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Swarthmore College and a visiting Professor at the Haas School of Business at Berkeley Nicholas Christakis (https://sociology.yale.edu/people/nicho

Which kind of wisdom will people need to master to overcome major negative societal and/or psychological changes after the pandemic? Igor and Charles share and discuss responses from 57 of the world's leading behavioral and social scientists, collected as part of the World After Covid (https://worldaftercovid.info/) project. Each episode, four responses are selected. This time, the conversation covers themes of social support, sympathy & compassion, acknowledging uncertainty, and balancing diverse interests in the midst of the pandemic. Igor points out that humanity has a greater capacity for accepting and managing uncertainty than we might realize, and Charles is intrigued by the often-overlooked benefits of interactions with strangers. Featuring: Katie McLaughlin (https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/kate-mclaughlin), John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University Barbara Fredrickson (https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/faculty-profile/barbara-l-fredrickson-phd),

Which domain or aspect of social life will show the most significant negative societal and/or psychological change in response to the pandemic? Igor and Charles share and discuss responses from 57 of the world's leading behavioral and social scientists, collected as part of the World After Covid (https://worldaftercovid.info/) project. Each episode, four responses are selected. This time, the conversation covers themes of autobiographical memory, estrangement, political conflict, and prejudice in the midst of the pandemic. Igor wonders how losing track of distinct day-to-day memories might distort our sense of who we are, and Charles considers the odd influence that a year of mask-wearing may have on how we'll interact with strangers in the post-pandemic future. Featuring: Jeffrey Zacks (https://dcl.wustl.edu/people/jzacks/), Professor and Associate Chair of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Washington University Paula Niedenthal (https://psych.wisc.edu/staff/niedenthal-paula/), Professor at the University of

Which domain or aspect of social life will show the most significant negative societal and/or psychological change in response to the pandemic? Igor and Charles share and discuss responses from 57 of the world's leading behavioral and social scientists, collected as part of the World After Covid (https://worldaftercovid.info/) project. Each episode, four responses are selected. This time, the conversation covers themes of social inequality, loneliness, economic hardships, and despair in the midst of the pandemic. Igor assesses 3 sharply contrasting visions of the future, and Charles reflects on the idea of pandemics as the downside of something mostly very beneficial - the highly social nature of our species. Featuring: Azim Shariff (https://psych.ubc.ca/profile/azim-shariff/), Associate Professor and  Canada Research Chair of Moral  Psychology at the University of British Columbia, and director of the Center for Applied Moral Psychology Nicholas Christakis (https://sociology.yale.edu/people/nicholas-christak

What kind of wisdom will people need to capitalize on the positive societal and/or psychological change after the pandemic? Igor and Charles share and discuss responses from 57 of the world's leading behavioral and social scientists, collected as part of the World After Covid (https://worldaftercovid.info/) project. Each episode, four responses are selected. This time, the conversation covers themes of critical thinking, intellectual humility, political cooperation, and solidarity in the midst of the pandemic. Igor wrestles with the challenge of identifying experts while lacking expertise ourselves, and Charles considers the potential downsides of clamouring for resignations when our leaders make mistakes. Featuring: David Dunning (https://lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/faculty/ddunning.html), Social Psychologist and recipient of the Distinguished Lifetime Career Award from the International Society for Self and Identity. Mark Schaller (https://psych.ubc.ca/profile/mark-schaller/), Professor of Psychology at the

What kind of wisdom will people need to capitalize on the positive societal and/or psychological change after the pandemic? Igor and Charles share and discuss responses from 57 of the world's leading behavioral and social scientists, collected as part of the World After Covid (https://worldaftercovid.info/) project. Each episode, four responses are selected. This time, the conversation covers themes of sympathy and compassion, self-distancing, perspective-taking, and learning from pandemics in the midst of the pandemic. Igor wonders what being empathetic and compassionate even looks like online, and Charles ponders lessons not learned from past global catastrophes. Featuring: Roxane Cohen Silver (https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/rsilver/), Social-Personality Psychologist and Adversity Research Trailblazer Laura Carstensen (https://longevity.stanford.edu/people-2/laura-carstensen/), Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy and Founding Director of the Stanford Center on Longevity Edouard Machery (ht

Which domain or aspect of social life will show the most significant positive societal and/or psychological change in response to the pandemic? Igor and Charles share and discuss responses given to the question about positive change in response to the pandemic by 57 of the world's leading behavioral and social scientists, collected as part of the World After Covid (https://worldaftercovid.info/) project. Each episode, four responses are selected. This time, the conversation covers themes of political cooperation, nature, solidarity, and prosocial behaviour in the midst of the pandemic. Featuring: Dagomar Degroot, Associate Professor of Environmental History at Georgetown University Shinobu Kitayama, Robert B. Zajonc Collegiate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan Katie McLaughlin, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University Barry Schwartz, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Swarthmore College

Which domain or aspect of social life will show the most signigificant positive societal and/or psychological change in response to the pandemic? Igor and Charles share and discuss responses given to the question about positive change in response to the pandemic by 57 of the world's leading behavioral and social scientists, collected as part of the World After Covid (https://worldaftercovid.info/) project. Each episode, four responses are selected. This time, the conversation covers themes of political and structural change, care for elders, social connectedness, and reconsidering habits in the midst of the pandemic. Featuring: Ayse K. Uskul, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Kent Michael Ross, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Waterloo Harry Reis, Professor of Psychology at the University of Rochester James Gross, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Psychophysiology Laboratory at Stanford University

What one piece of wisdom is important to give to people now to help them make it through the pandemic? Igor and Charles share and discuss responses given to this critical question by 57 of the world's leading behavioral and social scientists, collected as part of the World After Covid (https://worldaftercovid.info/) project. Each episode, four responses are selected. This time, the conversation covers themes of what's important, living in the moment, social connectedness, and shared humanity in the midst of the pandemic. Featuring: Yukiko Ushida, Professor of Social and Cultural Psychology at the Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Greater Good Science Center Wendy Mendes, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Francisco Michael Bond, Cross-cultural Social Psychologist

What one piece of wisdom is important to give to people now to help them make it through the pandemic? Igor and Charles share and discuss responses given to this critical question by 57 of the world's leading behavioral and social scientists, collected as part of the World After Covid (https://worldaftercovid.info/) project. Each episode, four responses are selected. This time, the conversation covers themes of agency and control, long-term orientation, social connectedness, solidarity, and perspective-taking in the midst of the pandemic. Featuring: Michael Norton, Social Psychologist from Harvard Business School Robert Sternberg, Psychologist and Wisdom Research Pioneer Roxane Cohen Silver, Social - Personality Psychologist and Adversity Research Trailblazer Valerie Tiberius, Philosopher and Author

After 2 and a half years of podcasting, 30+ episodes, 50,000+ downloads, and one global pandemic, it's time for an exciting announcement from the On Wisdom team...

Does wisdom reside in particular persons, or is wisdom more about what happens between people? And if wisdom does require a social context, what are the implications of our new social distancing habits since the rise of the pandemic? Ricca Edmondson joins Igor and Charles to discuss novel ethnographic approaches to the study of wisdom, the significance of Irish funeral rituals, new lessons from old Trojan horses, and the value of framing wisdom as a social construction. Originally recorded at the start of the pandemic, Ricca returned for a retrospective at the close of the episode, to share her opinions on the meaning of wisdom in these rapidly changing times, and in our future post-pandemic society. Igor muses about big and small wisdom, and Charles asks Ricca about the world after the pandemic. Welcome to the wisdom and pandemic episode! Special Guest: Ricca Edmondson.

Despite the common stereotype of ‘older and crankier,’ psychologists suggest we become more positive as we age. Why? Do our aging brains become worse at detecting threats in the environment? Do we choose to focus on more positive aspects of our experience as we age? And what does the latest scientific research say about one of the major dangers of older age — Alzheimer’s disease? Mara Mather joins Igor and Charles to discuss the neuroscience of emotional aging, the role of the locus coeruleus in memory and attention, emotion-induced blindness, and the parallels between Cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Igor digs into the different roles of culture and the lack of good longitudinal studies of aging, Mara reveals how intense emotions can sharpen some aspects of our memories of an event while blunting others, and Charles learns that he and many others may be on the Alzheimer’s spectrum. Welcome to Episode 30. Special Guest: Mara Mather.

What is the value of wisdom in the time of the global pandemic? Does the community of behavioural scientists studying wisdom agree on anything about the nature of wisdom? Can we say what we now know about wisdom and, conversely, what do we know we don’t yet know? Howard Nusbaum joins Igor and Charles to discuss the recently assembled Toronto Wisdom Task Force and the resulting Common Wisdom Model, meta-cognition, the thorny issue of moral-grounding, and sage advice regarding how to measure wisdom in the lab. Igor stresses the importance of building solid theoretical foundations for the field in the context of the pandemic, Howard reflects on the viability of evil wisdom, and Charles learns that we had better pay close attention today to the values we program into the decision-making robots of tomorrow. Welcome to Episode 29. Special Guest: Howard Nusbaum.

Is happiness research even relevant in such times of crisis, or is focusing on our happiness simply a luxury we can no longer afford? And, while effective for many people, why does the cultivation of gratitude sometimes result in unexpectedly negative consequences? Sonja Lyubomirsky joins Igor and Charles to discuss the key components of happiness, lessons from 9-11, ‘happiness-intervention fit’, Mother Teresa’s dark side, and the unexpected psychological impact of the global pandemic to date. Igor reflects on life-under-lockdown vs life in the downfall of the Soviet Union, Sonja discusses the subtle art of balancing optimism with positive action, and Charles learns that when it comes to counting one’s blessings, it pays not to count too high. Special Guest: Sonja Lyubomirsky.

Though there is a lot of talk about diversity in the workplace, “age diversity” is often overlooked. Might there even be an emerging mission-critical role for wise elders in the world’s most cutting-edge tech companies? Hospitality maverick and Airbnb Strategic Advisor Chip Conley joins Igor and Charles to discuss the U-Curve of happiness, the surprises and challenges of mentoring billionaire CEOs and State Governors, the potential of intergenerational housing, the emergence of a new generation of wisdom workers, and his new project to build the world’s first midlife wisdom school - The Modern Elder Academy. Igor seeks new solutions for the stressed 'sandwich generation', Chip highlights the importance of curiosity at work and how mentoring and interning often go hand-in-hand, and Charles picks Chip’s brain on how to make wisdom more hip and sexy. Welcome to Episode 27. Special Guest: Chip Conley.

Bad things happen to all of us. But why do some people grow wiser, while others simply grow bitter? What do scientists do to reliably measure wisdom in the laboratory? And might this research suggest solutions to some of the most pressing problems of our time? Igor and Charles welcome one of today's leading wisdom scientists - Judith Glück, who discusses the MORE Model of Life Experience, different ways of reflecting on personal experiences, collaborative doctors, compassionate teachers, and pervasive foolishness across the entire political spectrum. Igor ponders potential paths to wiser politics in the face of the world's uncertainties, Judith reminds us that our choice of confidants is critical if we are to extract wisdom from challenging experiences, and Charles is surprised to learn that neither the left nor the right has a monopoly on championing unwise leaders. Welcome to Episode 26. Special Guest: Judith Glück.